Zambia opposition leader HH  hails Chakwera, says Africa needs statesmen like Malawi leader

Zambia’s main opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema (HH), president of United Party for National Development (UPND), has spoken highly of Malawi leader Lazarus Chakwera describing him as the ‘statesman that Africa needs’.

Hichilema made a statement on Facebook on Tuesday which was part of welcoming the Malawi leader in Lusaka on his day-return official visit.

Said Hichilema: “President Chakwera  belongs to a new generation of African Patriots and distinguished leaders who found themselves in unusual circumstances of a new struggle against tyrannical leaders. Leaders that fight and oppress their own people and use ethnicity to subjugate and divide the masses, for political expediency.”

He added that President Chakwera belongs to a breed of African nationalists who are fast tracked as enemies of the state, simply because they chose to participate in the culture of democracy that ordinarily allows for divergent views.

“Africa in general and Zambia in particular will now rely on distinguished statesmen like President Chakwera, who prior to being President, vigorously fought against dictatorship, discrimination, corruption and institutional impunity,” he said.

Hichilema made it clear that Africans now depend on this African champion of democracy, to set aside African leaders’ usual diplomatic niceties and empty chatter, and truthfully speak on behalf of Africans’ daily struggles against despotic leaders that litter the continent, and the acute poverty and suffering they subject our people to, due to greed, corruption and mismanagement of public resources.

Chakwera, who is expected to return to Malawi Tuesday evening, hasn’t met Hichilema.

But upon his arrival in Lusaka, Chakwera proceeded to lay wreaths at the burial site of the late former presidents of Zambia, Levy Mwanawasa, Fredrick Chiluba and Michael Sata.