By Kapya Kaoma

The Zambia Police arrest of KBN’s Journalist Petty Chanda for “destroying evidence”–the source of the leaked audio between State House Aide Levy Ngoma and Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Joseph Akafumba–is a major act of cowardice from the New Dark Regime. Aside from being implicated in this corrupt conspiracy, President HH is spending sleepless nights wondering what other information she may have. Who is the mole? With the entire house on fire, and pants down, intimidation is the machiavellian key to ensuring political control even when one is dead afraid. Yet Ms. Chanda exposed a crime, which in a noble nation should have earned her respect. But not in Ballycountry where the President claims to be democratic, but then leads an onslaught of vicious campaigns against freedom of expression. Ms. Chanda is arrested to bully her into silence, and to send a message to other journalists–don’t expose President HH’s corruption and expect to walk free. Yet in democratic nations, shouts for HH’s resignation will be heard across all political spectrums.

As with cadres, wako ni wako appointments, politically motivated arrests and prosecutions, the administration says one thing, and does the other. It is a waste of time to pay attention to what it says in public–one is better served to watch its actions to understand its deadly dark agenda. It is this truth that that audio revealed–the grand agenda of the global-trotting “democracy and human rights upholding” singing President, whose own home agenda is to corrupt the courts, the Police, and all branches of government, and ultimately to kill democracy!

Freedom of expression and of the Press are the pillars of democracy. A democratic nation ought to protect journalists as opposed to hunting them down. Autocratic governments only expect journalists to support it, and lock up those who oppose it. We are not far from it. Ms. Chanda’s leaked audio does not break any law aside from exposing the President’s true colors–he is corrupt! Hence I find the arrest uncalled for, and the violation of human rights. Ms. Chanda has a moral duty to protect her sources–thus expecting her to give the police this information is abusing her rights and professional ethics. But it is also a crime. The source could easily sue KBN if the agreement was that the name would not be revealed.

The police want to hide behind the Cyber Law–but unjust laws are immoral to be obeyed. Again, didn’t HH himself denounce that Bill? So why knowingly enforce something you know to be unjust? As for privacy, these persons are public officials discussing an issue of public interest–thus the privacy concern does not apply. Besides, if you have information about someone trying to kill me, would you keep it to yourself or would you inform me and relevant authorities? Assuming authorities are compromised, would you provide that evidence to them or post it on social media so as to make it harder for authorities to ignore? Moreover, the media industry is always in competition. Scoops or breaking stories first is an important credibility element in journalism–hence once the story is confirmed as credible, the Network is quick to break it first! These are some of the ethical judgements KBN had to make–they chose to provide the evidence to the public since the information was abuse of power, a conspiracy to undermine democracy and of public interest. So the issue of how the journalist got the audio is immaterial!

Importantly, President HH, and not the journalist, should be on trial! Levy indicated that he had discussed the issue with HH and Nalumango. To ask for Levy and Akafumba’s heads is unfair. Rather we need answers to the issues raised in the audio. When did Levy meet with the President and the Vice President? When did he meet with the Registrar of Societies and others? How about Mr. Nshindano? What does he know? How about the letter? Did the President abuse his power? We need answers to these questions–they are central to democracy. Unfortunately, we don’t expect HH to investigate himself. Neither the Registrar, nor other individuals involved in this scandal–they owe their lives to President HH. Firing them won’t give us the truth, but knowing what transpired will. This is the only way to stop the New Dark Regime from corrupting public offices while claiming to fight corruption!

I am afraid that President HH’s nepotism and cronyism is exploding. People with integrity are demeaned as “infected,” among them is a Mr. Nshindano, who without this audio would have lost his job for upholding our laws. Such individuals are losing their jobs, and replaced with criminals affiliated with the New Dark cartel. The cleansing of the Civil Service which has happened under the New Dark Regime is now explained–it is getting rid of the “infected”–the negative term that demands further investigation by itself. It is immoral to entertain the thought that some of our own citizens could be termed “infected.” Thanks be to God–the secret is finally out!

It is on all of us to hold President HH to account for his role in this scandal. We shouldn’t be fooled into viewing him as incorruptible–thanks to the courageous Journalist, we now have it before us. The President directed someone to knowingly commit a crime to enhance his political power. It is a clear violation of the law. The police shouldn’t be investigating the poor journalist or KBN–it is not a crime to expose the corruption of the President. We cannot investigate Levy and Akafumba, without accessing cellphones and computer communication of all accomplices identified in this scandal. Sadly, Ballypolice, Ballyacc, and Ballycourts only exist to torture heroes like Ms. Chanda, while criminals fly around the globe to take pictures with white people as with gods!

The good news is, we have one sound case for future prosecutions once HH leaves Power!

By H.E Hakainde Hichilema

The year 2021 has been a landmark year for Zambia. Two important events occurred. The passing of the first president of independent Zambia, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, was mourned in June. Then, in the election in August 2021, the people of Zambia voted decisively for change.

I mention the passing of Dr. Kaunda because Zambia has strong roots. He was a person who sought to serve ordinary Zambians and, even if some of the policy decisions his party made did not have optimal outcomes, his intention was to place ordinary Zambians at the center of the country’s development.

Sadly, Zambia has not lived up to its promise. Over the last decade, we have witnessed the erosion of our economy and the corruption of our politics. As a consequence, our debt has risen to unsustainable levels, reducing the country’s capacity to invest in productive areas of our economy and its ability to address the gaps in health care, education, and other social services.

Our national budget has been overwhelmed by debt servicing, emoluments, and consumption, when there should have been greater room for investment and growth.

The scourge of corruption has eroded our much-needed resources including the debt itself, robbing us further of the opportunity for growth.

This slide towards debt, disaster, and dependency set our country on a bleak course.

Fortunately, the people of Zambia that decided to change direction and the election—notably under difficult COVID-19 conditions—saw a change of government and the opportunity for a new beginning.

It was our third peaceful, democratic transfer of leadership since the advent of multi-party democracy three decades ago. It was an African success.

Notably, Zambia’s transition is an example of Africa’s success in addressing its own challenges: The African Union played an instrumental role in ensuring our smooth transfer of power.

This transition also sends a clear message that Africa embraces the right to democratic choice. It comes after the historic stand taken by the courts in our neighbor, Malawi, where a rigged election outcome was rejected, and new elections were successfully held in 2019.

In both these cases, it was Africans who held the election, contested it, and adjudicated on its fairness. We can say with pride that Africans own democracy on the continent.

The road ahead will not be without challenges but, with a clear vision and plan, and with relentless determination, we will deliver on the aspirations of our people.

My administration’s focus over the next five years will be on restoring macroeconomic stability and promoting the growth of the economy.

We will pay special attention to lowering the fiscal deficit, reducing public debt, and restoring social and market confidence. We will also promote national unity and good governance by strictly adhering to the rule of the law and democratic accountability.

Our priority is a simple one: We must find a way to include the jobless youth in our economy. In order to do that, we need to build our economy by encouraging new investment and giving our young people the skills they need to participate fully in the economy.

Growing the economy requires agile thinking that uses all the levers at our disposal. We must urgently attend to restoring our mining sector to its rightful place as a leading global producer of copper by ensuring regulatory fairness and attending to obstacles that stand in the way of new investment. We must strive to increase the production of copper and other minerals so that Zambia can reclaim its place as one of Africa’s leading mining countries.

We need to make Zambia a preferred investment destination by cutting red tape and reducing policy uncertainty which cause investors to hesitate.

We must encourage the growth of new businesses. We need 1,000—perhaps even 10,000—entrepreneurs to bloom, igniting our small business sector as a key employer and source of innovation and growth.

To do this, we must make it easier for small businesses to gain access to capital. Government must understand the challenges that entrepreneurs and investors face, and do its part to welcome investment, growth, and innovation.

None of this will happen without clean and purposeful governance. The institutions mandated to investigate and prosecute will be given unfettered autonomy to act without fear or favor and without political bias. Malpractice and mismanagement must be rooted out.

From the election to economic recovery, Zambia’s success will, in this way, be Africa’s success.

Brookings Institution