…a heartfelt message to Zambians as elections approach

By Thandiwe Ketiš Ngoma

Zambians recently woke up to news that President Hakainde Hichilema has been rated as one of the world’s top leaders. At first, I just laughed. Before commenting on the story, I decided to go and read the article in the right wing British newspaper that rated him to understand the criteria used. I found none.

Instead there were hollow rumblings about Hichilema having turned around the economy (my foot!) and ramping up copper production in the mining sector. I then understood. Western foreign interests are cutting it big in Zambia’s mining industry and are celebrating the man who has not only given them huge tax incentives but also allowed them to do what no other president has done: freely conduct a geological mapping of the country’s unexplored underground mineral wealth so that the data generated can inform their next moves.

Zambia’s economy has not changed. We are yet to start paying our debt since we defaulted in 2020 and the cost of living is now worse than it was when HH was elected. If anything, the economy has got worse. But media outlets of the foreign interests that our president is serving will want to tell us otherwise. I have a message for such publications and for mining companies like First Quantum Minerals: “Please don’t insult our intelligence. We can see through you. Just enjoy the extraction that the man with an inferiority complex has enabled you and your kinsmen to loot from Zambia while it lasts.”

Zambians know that for the West, as is for China, Zambia is only important for the rare metals that it has that are required as part of the just energy transition. This scramble for resources explains why the Chinese premier recently visited the country. It also explains why the US president Donald Trump recently offered HH a deal to effectively sell the country for about $1.5 billion support in the health sector in exchange for exclusive access to the country’s mineral deposits. In Kenya, a related deal was stopped by the courts. In Zambia, where we don’t have an independent judiciary, it is a matter of when HH will announce the formal signing of the deal before touting the improved US-Zambia relations as further evidence of the outside world’s faith in his leadership. Since the judiciary and parliament are now wings or extensions of the executive, no one will defend the public interest in Zambia.

Once HH signs the deal with Trump, our muzungu anikonde president will think he has made it in life because the forces that are out to extract our mineral wealth will embark on what the Daily Telegraph has started: heap praise on him as the only African leader to have good relations with the Trump administration. He won’t understand that in reality he would have sold Zambia to foreign commercial interests the same way our chiefs or traditional leaders sold our fellow human beings into slavery in the past. Samora Machel is quoted to have told Mozambicans that “when white commercial interests praise me, just know that I have betrayed you”.

When China and the US last competed for what HH now calls “a pretty girl” , namely Zambia, historian Dr Sishuwa Sishuwa wrote a short poem, published in October 2019, that is worth quoting at length.

“The Bitch that Keeps Giving

By Sishuwa Sishuwa

Zambia, My Love.
Let me tell you something.
If you looked at yourself the way others look at you, perhaps you would envy, cherish, and love yourself a bit more. Your mesmerising beauty just takes everyone’s breath away.

Zambia, My Love.
Why is it that despite being said to be an ugly harlot, everyone loves to sleep with you?

And you know what really breaks my heart, Darling? You don’t charge! You remain the bitch that keeps giving!”

We Zambians must not be fooled by the Telegraph. The UK publication is simply a propaganda front for the foreign commercial interests that our president is faithfully serving. In fact, HH is more of their president than ours. By ours, I am referring to ordinary Zambians including the two nameless shopkeepers who were quoted in the Daily Telegraph saying the following:

“Zambians are suffering too much. This president is the worst. We want him out.”

In these words, I am comforted. They show that Zambians know who HH is and will not be fooled by foreign interests and their media. Zambians know HH more than anyone else. They have lived through his leadership and have borne the brunt of it. No propaganda, local or foreign, will overcome their lived experience. As Zambia moves toward another general election, a painfully familiar script is unfolding once again. The UPND government, led by President Hakainde Hichilema, which neglected the people from 2021 until now, is preparing to suddenly “remember” them. Soon, leaders will arrive in communities carrying food parcels, cash handouts, fertiliser, promises, and carefully rehearsed sympathy.

Before you clap, stop.
Before you smile, remember.

Before you believe, feel.
From 2021 to today, Zambians have suffered quietly and deeply. Homes have known hunger. Youths have known despair. Parents have carried humiliation because they could not provide. Graduates have slept with certificates under their pillows while hope slowly drained away. Farmers planted with faith and harvested only debt. Small businesses collapsed under the weight of neglect, darkness, and rising costs.

For years, one silent destroyer cut across every household and every livelihood: endless load shedding.

Barbers watched customers walk away as clippers lay useless. Welders stared at idle machines while bills piled up. Tailors, salon owners, bakers, internet café operators, butchers, and small workshops saw their income disappear. Medicines spoiled. Cold rooms failed. Students studied by candlelight. Families sat night after night in darkness, asking when life would finally improve.

And when Zambians cried out, they were not met with compassion. They were met with mockery.

They were told to “buy solar panels.”

As if a barber struggling to feed his children could suddenly afford solar.
As if a welder whose business had collapsed had capital lying around.
As if ordinary citizens had not already exhausted every possible means of survival.

While Zambians sat in darkness, burning candles and charcoal, using their last money to buy fuel for generators they could barely afford, the government continued exporting electricity to neighbouring countries. Power was sold outside Zambia while Zambians suffered inside their own homes. Revenue was prioritised while livelihoods were destroyed.

Where was the government then?

You were told to be patient.
You were told to understand.
You were told the situation was “global.”

But hunger is not global when it sits in your kitchen.
Darkness is not global when it kills your business.
Unemployment is not global when it follows your child home every day.

Now, because an election is approaching, the same government is suddenly in a hurry. Suddenly there is food. Suddenly there is money. Suddenly there are empowerment meetings, emergency road works, and sweet words about a future they ignored for five long years.

Do not be fooled.

If they truly cared about you and me, our lives would have improved long ago. If they meant well, they would not have mocked suffering or told struggling citizens to buy solar while exporting electricity. Leadership does not wake up when votes are needed. Real leadership stands with the people even when it is difficult, even when there are no cameras.

What they are bringing now are not solutions. They are cosmetic solutions. They are bandages slapped onto wounds they allowed to bleed for years.

As hardship deepened, another wound was opened: your voice was targeted.

The Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act has been enforced in ways that made citizens afraid to speak. People who complained online about load shedding, high prices, or corruption were threatened, arrested, or intimidated. Criticism was treated as a crime. Fear replaced dialogue.

A nation cannot breathe when its people whisper.
A democracy cannot survive when fear replaces freedom.

To the barbers, welders, tailors, marketeers, and hustlers of Zambia, remember how darkness killed your income. Remember how customers disappeared. Remember how you were laughed at and told to “adapt.” Remember how you were told to buy solar while power was exported and profits celebrated.

When they come to you now with food, money, and promises, understand this clearly: they did not change. They are afraid.

Yes, take the food. Hunger is real.
Yes, take the money. Poverty is painful.
Yes, accept what they give. Survival comes first.

But do not trust them.
They did not mean well for you then, and they do not mean well now.

That food is not kindness. It is your money, returned too late.
That cash is not generosity. It is panic.
Those promises are not hope. They are desperation.

Your vote is your power. It is the one thing they cannot export, silence, or mock. It is the one thing they fear.

When you enter the voting booth, you will be alone with your conscience. No one will be watching. Only your memory will be there. Remember the darkness. Remember the mockery. Remember the suffering.

Do not let one season of gifts erase five years of pain.
Do not let cosmetic solutions steal your future.

Your vote is your power. Use it.

donchikubeba