UNMASKING THE PHANTOMS: WHY THE REGIME FEARS FREE THOUGHT
By Thandiwe Ketiš Ngoma
Chris Haambote, the elder brother to Radio Phoniex’s Luchi Haambote who is one of Hichilema’s miscellaneous aides (writing under the alias Farai Ruvanyathi) has delivered a textbook exercise in political deflection, crafted to sanitize state overreach while discrediting anyone bold enough to hold power accountable. Dressed in the high-minded vocabulary of “constitutionalism” and “due process,” his argument crumbles under its own intellectual dishonesty. By attempting to delegitimize the UN Special Rapporteur and erase my voice, Haambote reveals the desperate measures defenders of this regime will employ to suppress uncomfortable truths.
What Haambote and his handlers fail to grasp is that their obsession with my identity is not an isolated trick—it is part of a systemic, deeply neurotic paranoia driving the ruling UPND. Haambote alleges that Thandiwe Ketis Ngoma does not exist; that the name is merely a pseudonym used by Sishuwa to criticise the regime, not of a real person who speaks using their identity. I do not know why anyone would seek to delete my existence as a human being and insist that I am someone else. It would appear that the UPND are thoroughly haunted by historian and academic Sishuwa Sishuwa, seeing his shadow in nearly every criticism against the government. Sishuwa expresses his critiques openly on his X page without fear or filter. Why on earth would he need a pseudonym to voice an opinion?
This is pure political projection. Driven by cowardice, the ruling party routinely deploys rogue digital proxies—including Koswe, Zambian Watchdog, Zambia Eagle, Editor Zambia, and various rogue pages—to insult, smear, and attack citizens. They project their own reliance on anonymous attack dogs onto independent voices because they cannot comprehend commentators who stand proudly behind their real names.
Their intellectual bankruptcy and fear of Sishuwa runs deep:
1. The Erasure of Given Mutinta: To the UPND, Given Mutinta cannot possibly exist. Their insular, tribal logic cannot process how a Tonga voice could criticize a Tonga president. Therefore, they insist Mutinta must be Sishuwa—even though Mutinta, a Professor at Nelson Mandela University who has published books under the same name and a former Catholic priest in Monze who was known as much for his fearlessness as for his catching homilies, openly attaches his phone number and contact details to his write-ups for anyone seeking verification.
2. The Erasure of Thandiwe Ketiš Ngoma: To them, I do not exist because their patriarchy cannot fathom a woman courageously calling out their failed leadership. They declare my name a myth, completely ignoring that I regularly call into live radio and TV talk shows, participate in public forums, and maintain readily accessible contact details.
3. The Erasure of International Observers: When Amnesty International released a damning report on the eve of the election that highlighted Hichilema’s authoritarian tendencies and gross human rights violations, the UPND supporters and some officials saw Sishuwa’s hand in the report. When renowned academics Nic Cheeseman and Nicole Beardsworth published their analysis labeling the election a sham, the regime blamed Sishuwa, accusing him of being the the author behind the article. When international media outlets highlight electoral irregularities or human rights violations, they detect Sishuwa’s hidden hand. When the UN Special Rapporteur dismissed the treason charges against Brian Mundubile, Makebi Zulu and 16 others as concocted, UPND supporters and even some officials accused Sishuwa of being the influence behind the UN.
I ask again: why is the UPND so profoundly haunted by one academic that they see him behind every single critique? Why must they delete the existence of every independent-minded citizen who refuses to parrot their line?
By reducing every dissenting voice to a single boogeyman, Haambote attempts to dodge the core issues: state overreach, arbitrary arrests, and systemic human rights abuses. He demands the public obsess over opposition campaign rhetoric while turning a blind eye to police abductions, trumped-up charges, and the weaponization of “national security” to crush political rivals. Heated speech is not equivalent to state-sponsored repression; the former is political noise, while the latter is an abuse of sovereign power.
Furthermore, Haambote’s attempt to dismiss the UN Special Rapporteur’s intervention as “prejudgment” betrays a fundamental ignorance of international human rights mechanisms. UN experts exist precisely to sound early warnings when domestic legal institutions become compromised or weaponized. Pointing to quiet diplomatic interventions by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy as proof of state innocence is equally dishonest—securing safety guarantees for detainees is conflict management to prevent violence, not a clean bill of health for the state’s legal claims.
Democracy in Zambia is not threatened by fierce public debate, robust commentary, or international scrutiny. It is threatened when those holding power subvert constitutional checks, weaponize state security, hide behind shadowy internet trolls, and pretend that every critical woman in the country is just a man using a fake name.
Haambote demands accountability from citizens while granting the state total immunity to abuse its apparatus. That is not a defense of the rule of law; it is a cheap propaganda brief written to cover up state failure. My name is Thandiwe Ketiš Ngoma. My voice is my own. The truth will not be silenced just because a regime is too terrified to face its citizens after stealing the vote. Hichilema and the UPND are very good at projecting their evil acts onto their victims. As Sishuwa recently observed in an interview with an international media outlet, “Those who committed treason are in State House. Those who should be in State House are in prison, accused of treason.” What a travesty!
Sishuwa definitely saw through Hichilema’s failures much earlier than most of us did. He regularly called the president out and predicted many things that now make him look like a prophet. This includes the use of the military in partisan politics and the famous June tweet that forced the UPND to petition Stellenbosch University to fire him: “Hichilema will lose the election on 13 August. The only thing that can save him from defeat is pre-ballot death or industrial scale vote-rigging. Never again should Zambia elect a lying, tribal, corrupt, unpatriotic, vindictive, hypocritical, lawless, and undemocratic scumbag.”
The overall point however is that there are many people who can see through HH’s lies, failures, and undemocratic practices. I am one of those. Given Mutinta is another. Nic Cheeseman, Nicole Beadworth, Amnesty International, the UN, and millions of ordinary citizens. To reduce this combined opposition to injustices and lawlessness to the influence of one person is sheer stupidity. Sishuwa is not the only one capable of detecting wrongs. Every sane person is.