IT’S TOO LATE
Enticing chiefs now won’t save UPND – stakeholders
By Thandizo Banda
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema’s intention to increase allowances for chiefs and their retainers in next year’s national budget are a good political statement but it has come too late, say some stakeholders.
“Most stakeholders, including chiefs, have already formed an opinion about what they want to see next year,” political scientist Dr Chris Zumani Zimba said.
In an interview, Dr Zimba described Hichilema’s statement as a bad political gesture meant to appease chiefs because he needs them most ahead of next year’s general elections.
Speaking during the 2025 Kulamba Traditional Ceremony of the Chewa people of Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia in Katete District, Eastern Province, at the weekend, Hichilema announced his government would consider increasing chiefs’ and retainers’ allowances in the next budget.
“Hichilema’s statement is motivated by politics and electioneering. It is a political reaction to the growing demands, complaints and aggression against the UPND [United Party for National Development] government that it has neglected traditional leaders and made them more vulnerable than previous governments,” Dr Zimba said.
He said Hichilema’s announcement was an acknowledgment that for the first four years, his government had neglected chiefs and never treated them with the political recognition and respect they deserved.
Dr Zimba, an author and researcher, said that it was wrong for the UPND government to treat chiefs with political contempt and fiscal disregard for a solid four-year period while in government only to remember them during the electoral calendar and a few months before the presidential and general elections.
“To our politicians in general, it is important to recognise that chiefs are permanent, broad community leaders and gatekeepers by their royal birth. As such, any wise and responsible government must accord chiefs and traditional leaders the necessary respect and dignity before, during and after elections,” he said.
Dr Zimba warned that appeasing chief instead of improving the welfare of their subjects would not resolve the many economic hardships the people were facing in various chiefdoms.
“The golden rule in African politics is that ‘all politicians need chiefs but not all chiefs need politicians’. For HH today, it is clear that this rule is being applied and enforced in his last year in power,” he said.
An educationist, Dr Gabriel Nsofwa, says the decision by the UPND government appeared to be a strategic attempt to garner support from chiefs ahead of the forthcoming elections.
“However, this tactic is unlikely to succeed as the general public has reportedly lost confidence in the UPND government. The question remains, why has the government chosen to increase allowances for chiefs at this particular juncture?” Dr Nsofwa said.
He said the move showed how unpopular the UPND government had become and was now trying to boost its image by offering incentives to chiefs.
Zambian Republican Party (ZRP) president Wright Musoma questioned the timing of the decision, which he said was about next year’s general election.
Musoma said since chiefs and their retainers deserved better remuneration, the improvement of their perks should have come earlier and not in the face of a crucial election year.
“Hakainde and his UPND have seen the writing on the wall and are now panicking. We challenge the government to look at improving the welfare of the entire population and not chiefs alone,” Musoma said.
He said majority Zambians lived in abject poverty as a result of UPND’s misrule and its failure to come up with an economic agenda that inspired all citizens.
“As ZRP and Tonse, we demand that the UPND administration takes an across-the-board approach in tackling poverty in the country and not the political gimmicks we are seeing,” Musoma said.
