AFRICA/ZAMBIA - "We need an effective government and an opposition that controls in the interest of the Country"

Lusaka (Agenzia Fides) - "Learn from your mistakes. Zambians want an effective government and also a formidable opposition in the interest of the people and the country". Thus, Father Godwin Mulenga, a Jesuit, urged President Hakainde Hichilema and his predecessor, Edgar Lungu, to put aside their personal animosities and work for the good of the country. Speaking on the 8th anniversary of the death of President Michael Chilufya Sata, Fr Mulenga said Zambia needed effective governance but also the opposition had a duty to check and balance government action.
Mulenga stressed that Mr. Lungu is the only remaining former president and therefore has a major responsibility to lead an effective and at the same time constructive opposition.
Edward Lungu and the current president, Hakainde Hichilema, clashed violently in the last elections.
Lungu served as the sixth President of Zambia from January 25, 2015 to August 24, 2021. Following the death of President Michael Sata in October 2014, Lungu was chosen as the Patriotic Front candidate for the January 2015 presidential by-election, in which he narrowly defeated the opposition candidate, Hakainde Hichilema.
Lungu was elected to a full presidential term in the August 2016 elections, again narrowly defeating Hichilema, who challenged the election result by filing a lawsuit in the Constitutional Court to overturn the result. On September 5, however, the court dismissed the appeal.
In 2021 Lungu was beaten by Hichilema, a long-time opponent who was arrested in 2017 for attempting to kill then-President Lungu (see Fides, 27/4/2017).
The animosity between the two politicians is seen as an obstacle to the implementation of effective policies to solve the country's problems, mainly youth unemployment and the diversification of the economy hitherto dominated by the copper mining sector. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 4/11/2022)

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