Do we like them?

Do we like Hakainde Hichilema?

Our score: 3 out of 10. Real good on schools and debt, but his own words reject gay and lesbian rights and serious crackdown allegations are unresolved.

Hichilema came up the hard way politically. He lost five elections before finally unseating Edgar Lungu in 2021, and he sells himself as a self-made businessman from Monze who became one of Zambia's richest people. He's an economist by training and known simply as HH.

The defining chapter before power was 2017. He and five others were arrested and charged with treason after his convoy reportedly didn't make way for President Lungu's motorcade, and he spent about four months in prison. The charges were dropped under a deal brokered by the Commonwealth, though the judge warned it wasn't an acquittal. Critics at the time saw the case as an attempt to stifle the opposition.

On the harm test, he doesn't dodge. After a 2022 anti-LGBTQ protest he said in a Facebook video “we do not support gay, lesbian rights as a government” and that Zambia is a Christian nation. Same-sex relations remain criminalised there. Some reports say no harsh punishments have been recorded under his government, but he hasn't moved the law, and for us that's a fail. I found nothing on his climate record that I could properly check, so I'm leaving it out rather than guessing.

Now the recent mess. Zambia voted on 13 August and the electoral commission said he won about 60 per cent. The next day security forces raided the home of challenger Brian Mundubile, and former minister Mutotwe Kafwaya was shot dead. Police said it was a bid to dismantle a suspected militia, which Mundubile rejects, and the circumstances remain unresolved.

Human Rights Watch then alleged 14 apparent enforced disappearances and 61 cases of beatings or other violence, and said the courts were closed about two weeks after the vote. Mundubile and his running mate were later charged with treason, and the government has not said how many people it arrested. Hichilema has said previously that “Arresting and prosecuting lawbreakers is not equivalent to loss of democratic space and human rights.” Where you land depends on whether you see lawful policing or a squeeze on the opposition.

The good stuff is real. He brought back free secondary schooling, which Reuters says put an estimated 2.3 million children back in classrooms. His government also lifted social cash transfers and secured debt restructuring deals after Zambia's default. Critics say decision-making is concentrated around the presidency and many Zambians still struggle with living costs.