Patience Mususa (photo) is a Zambian anthropologist and researcher who is based at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden.
Patriotic Vanguard Editor and Publisher Gibril Koroma called her from Toronto, Canada and asked her some questions on how Zambia would look like under the newly elected Zambian president Hakainde Hichilema.
Here is what Mususa told Gibril:
On internal security and justice, Mususa, who trained as an anthropologist at the University of Cape Town, said Hichilema will emphasise the rule of law and not allow his supporters and all Zambians to operate outside the law. That means, he will likely refrain from retributive justice against the former regime of Edgar Lungu.
She described president-elect Hichilema as a centre-right politician with liberal values.
On the new government’s relations with China, Mususa believes the Hichilema government will maintain a friendly relationship with China, as did his predecessors, but would aim to balance it with that of Western countries, and to broaden and strengthen African trade ties in the sub-region especially with South Africa.
The biggest challenge for Hichilema, Mususa says, will be on how to get the economy to generate jobs for the large number of young people in the country, many of whom voted for him. The immediate and ongoing challenge, she says, will be on whether his administration will put in place a welfare system to help the poor and vulnerable rural folks many of whom are hungry and cannot send their children to school because they cannot afford school uniforms, user fees and other essentials even though there is free education for school children in the country.
The Zambian anthropologist admits there were sporadic incidents of violence in some parts of the country especially in the north-west. She pointed out that Zambia is a largely peaceful country since the days of the country’s first President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda who died recently. Zambians, she says are not happy with the violence of the main political party supporters that has characterised politics in the country recently. Hichilema will be expected to govern in a peaceful Zambia because that is what Zambians want. Zambians, she observes, believe that Hichilema who emphasises the rule of law, may be able to deliver on that.
On Zambia’s huge debt, the new president is likely to open talks with all stakeholders including China to see how best to deal with it. Hichilema is an economist, accountant and businessman himself.
Hichilema will run a transparent government, Mususa believes, and will work to unite Zambians with a government representing the various groups in the country.
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