By 
Patriots for Economic Progress (PEP) leader, Sean Tembo, has questioned government’s motives behind Zambia’s recent economic improvements, suggesting they may be intended to influence voters ahead of the August 13 elections.
In a statement issued in Lusaka on Monday, Tembo argued that several past government decisions—such as exporting electricity and granting tax holidays to mines—had negatively affected the economy.
He urged citizens to reflect on whether the government’s newly announced changes were genuine or simply a pre-election tactic.
“The terrible loadsheding that the country has been subjected to in the past few years has not been due to circumstances beyond our control, but rather, because of a conscious choice made by President Hakainde Hichilema and his government to deny the people of Zambia electricity,”
Tembo said.
He pointed to what he described as sudden shifts in the government’s positions on key issues including loadshedding, alleged tribalism in public appointments, and the stability of the Kwacha—suggesting that these changes might be temporary.
“Public offices should reflect the face of the entire nation, and should not only be a preserve of the President’s tribes-mates,” Tembo emphasized.
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He questioned whether the government could be trusted to maintain economic gains after the elections, claiming that the recent appreciation of the Kwacha had validated the opposition’s long-standing position on the need for stronger mining sector regulation.
“The current appreciation of the Kwacha renders credence to our perpetual argument that, with proper policing of the mining sector, the value of the Kwacha can be sustained,” Tembo noted.
Tembo alleged that over the past four and a half years, Zambians had endured persistent loadshedding, regionally biased public appointments, and high exchange rates.
He argued that when opposition leaders raised these concerns and offered alternative solutions, the government—particularly President Hichilema—dismissed them as “noisy” and “jealous.”
“It was a well established fact that loadsheding was caused by Government’s decision to export our electricity to neighbouring countries such as Namibia, but President Hakainde Hichilema personally argued that we needed to export electricity to earn dollars,” he said.
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