President has restored rule of law and replaced military and police officials, but has some way to go in other areas
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema. Picture: MARY ALTAFFER/REUTERS
The president is also negotiating a hefty bailout package with the IMF. Over the weekend they announced a “staff level” agreement on a $1.4bn, three-year extended credit facility, the terms of which still need to be clarified. What we do know is that the Zambian government will need to “undertake bold and ambitious economic reforms,” according to Allison Holland, IMF mission chief for Zambia.
Calls are growing louder to cancel fuel and electricity subsidies, but that would cause an immediate spike in household spending that the electorate would find hard to tolerate Probably HH’s most difficult task is withstanding the pressure from party loyalists and voters to act quickly. They want him to hunt down those who stole so shamelessly from the state and bring them before the courts. And, ironically, they want a piece of the pie as well.
His party wants him to make good on his parliamentary commitment to “introduce specialised mechanisms to fast-track the recovery of stolen assets, as well as courts, focused on corruption and economic crimes”. HH knows only too well what it means to fall victim to political persecution. He was arrested more than a dozen times before coming to power. Which would explain why he instructed his newly appointed police inspector and heads of the security forces that “no-one should be arrested before investigations are concluded”. Protecting the rule of law is deeply personal for him.
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