AFP via Getty ImagesZambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema has come out fighting after a bruising month that saw him come under attack by stone throwers as he was trying to make a speech.
Video clips of him crouching and then being whisked away from a rally in the Copperbelt province shocked Zambians and many people, irrespective of their political affiliation, condemned what happened.
But with nine months to go until elections and a run for a second term, the president is under pressure.
On Tuesday, in his first press conference for 18 months, Hichilema set out to defend his record and laid out his achievements on the key issues of the economy and power generation.
“This level of hatred is shocking, you can see and even touch the venom,” he said, while appealing for Zambians to love each other.
But the message may not hit home with those who are continuing to struggle day to day.
The president has lost touch with “the real pulse of the people”, according to an opposition candidate to be mayor of the capital, Lusaka, Simon Mwila, who was trying to explain why people were throwing stones “rather than flowers”.
Sishuwa Sishuwa, a Zambian historian and senior lecturer at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, argues that the president has turned his back on what he once stood for.
“In power and over the last four years, Hichilema has turned out to be nearly everything he detested about his predecessor, Edgar Lungu, and, in some cases, much worse,” the academic told the BBC.
This is a charge rejected by the president, who pointed out his record on solving the debt crisis that he inherited and stabilising government finances.
On 8 November, Hichilema may have hoped for a friendlier reception in Chingola town, particularly as he had arrived with $450,000 (£340,000) to go towards rebuilding a local market that had been destroyed in a fire.
Instead, an angry crowd forced him to abandon his address.
Police blamed the trouble on “unruly members of the public” who were allegedly looting local shops. At least 27 people have been arrested for violence and arson.
At his press conference this week, Hichilema accused illegal artisanal miners of being behind the violence as his government was trying to crack down on this unregistered work.
“We will not allow any thuggery to return ever again,” he said.
XIn the 2021 elections, Hichilema, who had already made five unsuccessful runs for the presidency, surfed a wave of popularity that swept him into power in a landslide victory over Lungu.
By polling day, the country had defaulted on its debts, annual price inflation was touching 25% and there were frequent power blackouts.
Under the slogan “Bally will fix it” (“bally” is Zambian slang for father), he positioned himself as the solution to virtually all the problems the country faced.
Debt repayments have since been renegotiated and inflation has come down.
This week, Hichilema said that whereas four years ago there was a “huge debt mountain” and “we were living beyond our means”, now Zambia’s credit rating had improved and it was attracting investment from all over the world.
He also argued that the country’s vital mining sector was rebounding.
But with the August 2026 election approaching, Hichilema is finding out that he is not necessarily thanked for what he has achieved but rather criticised for what has not changed.
Economist Trevor Hambayi has described the progress with the nation’s finances as an “overriding success story”.
Better budgetary controls have helped boost investment in infrastructure, education, social programmes, health and the recruitment of essential government workers.
Annual inflation has come down to just below 12%, and the currency, the kwacha, has recently strengthened following a precipitous decline in the early years of the Hichilema presidency.
But Mr Hambayi told the BBC that the failure to resolve the power crisis had had a big impact on people, along with the “high cost of living and the lack of employment opportunities”.
“These are the metrics that speak to the ordinary Zambian.”
In its October report, the Lusaka-based Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection, which monitors the cost of living, said people were being squeezed by high prices for essential food and non-food items that “continue to absorb a growing share of household income”.
It added that although inflation had eased, “many families still cannot meet basic needs without reducing food quality or skipping meals”.
The president did acknowledge the energy problem in September, saying that the government feels “the pain and frustration of power outages faced by our citizens”.
Getty ImagesAnd this week he said Zambia’s generation capacity had been “decapitated” by a recent drought owing to its reliance on hydroelectricity.
“This challenge was a wake-up call. Now we have woken up,” he added, promising more solar and thermal energy projects.
Throughout his 15 years in opposition, Hichilema portrayed himself as an upholder of democratic values.
But once in state house, he has been accused of passing oppressive measures which he had previously opposed, such as the Cybersecurity Law.
This legislation, while seen as necessary for dealing with things like online fraud and child pornography, has been criticised for allowing the surveillance of anyone the state sees as undesirable.
Academic Dr Sishuwa also accused Hichilema of using the law against his opponents – exactly what he had criticised under the previous administration.
“After he commendably abolished the law on defamation of the president, he quickly turned to other repressive statutes to arrest critics and political opponents on a variety of charges such as sedition, criminal libel, hate speech, espionage and unlawful assembly,” he said.
The president insists that his government respects the rule of law and has not targeted anyone for political reasons.
Hichilema has also backed a controversial constitutional review process, including a plan to increase the number of constituencies so there would be more MPs in parliament.
While in opposition, he successfully campaigned against a review that incorporated a similar idea, saying this would enable then-President Lungu to stay in power and that it was too close to elections to embark on such a huge change.
He now argues that, according to the constitution, Zambia needs to create new constituencies every 10 years.
The president says that the delimitation exercise, or the increase in the number of constituencies, is important to ensure that resources are distributed equally.
And he has hit out at critics who are planning to hold national prayers to protest against the process on Friday, saying there is already a consultation process and discussions at state house, as well as legal avenues to object.
With the clock ticking down towards next year’s election, the president appears concerned about the way that people are responding to him.
While calling for tempers to cool, Hichilema has urged patience, saying it takes time for long-term development and investment programmes to have an impact.
But as the volley of stones thrown his way attests, patience may be wearing thin for some.
Getty Images/BBC
