Zambia’s newly elected President Hakainde Hichilema appointed new military chiefs on Sunday, replacing almost all police commissioners in a major overhaul, reported News 24. The president’s move is in line with his promise to end the previous regime’s heavy-handedness.
Various rights groups accused former president Edgar Lungu of leading a brutal crackdown on dissent. The police violence has claimed the lives of at least five people since he was officially elected in 2016. Lungu and his rival Hichilema were neck-and-neck in both 2016 polls and a 2015 snap election.
The police arrested Hichilema over a dozen times during his political career. He included restoring freedoms in the list of his electoral promises.
Hichilema announced the appointment of new army and air force chiefs and a new head of the country’s defense wing in a nationalized television address on Sunday.
“I am relieving all commissioners of police with immediate effect,” he added.
However, the president did not give any reason for the replacements.
He also urged Zambia’s police to conduct thorough checks before arresting any suspect, stressing that nobody should be arrested before investigations are over.
Hichilema won the August polls 12 by a landslide of almost one million votes, a victory hailed as a democratic milestone for opposition movements in Africa. It was his sixth attempt at winning the presidency.
According to the final electoral results, Hichilema got 2,810,777 votes while Lungu got 1,814,201 votes, out of 7 million registered voters. Lungu didn’t hesitate to accept his defeat and congratulated his successor.
During his inauguration speech on Tuesday, he vowed to tackle Zambia’s political instability and repression, reassuring the media they would no longer face any shutdowns in the future. He also pledged to tackle Zambia’s unsustainable debt, lamenting that the national budget was overwhelmed by the cost of servicing it.
