🇿🇲 EDITOR’S NOTE | Hichilema’s Energy Gamble and the Politics of Anger
President Hakainde Hichilema is scrambling to cushion households and small businesses from the bite of load shedding. His office now says compounds and traders will be prioritised for power supply, with Zesco guaranteeing 10 to 15 hours of electricity in 21 communities and installing backup generators in markets. It is a move meant to show action, but it also signals panic.
The politics of energy is unforgiving. Elections are barely 11 months away, and load shedding has never been this severe in Zambia’s history. While the President is correct to target vulnerable groups like welders, barbers and marketeers, the larger reality is that electricity remains scarce, and talk is outweighing results. People are angry, and anger is not softened by technical explanations.
Hichilema has built a reputation as a reformer, stabilising Zambia’s debt and repairing its credibility abroad. But politics is not only about credibility in Washington or Brussels. In Zambia, the economy is power, fuel and food. Voters judge performance by whether the lights are on, mealie meal is affordable and transport costs are bearable. GDP growth and foreign reserves do not mean much when refrigerators and welding machines stand idle.
The President’s defenders argue that droughts cut hydro generation and that solar and thermal plants are on the way. That is true, but it misses the emotional side of politics. Zambians are not asking for a lecture on rainfall deficits. They want urgency, visible fixes, and fewer press statements. When candles and charcoal are the fallback for millions, the government looks absent.
The optics matter. Installing 23 generators in markets is symbolic but small compared to the scale of the crisis. Announcing power guarantees for selected compounds risks appearing like selective relief while the majority endure blackouts. Such targeted interventions may be smart economics, but they are weak politics.
It is also striking how much the administration underestimates the communication gap. Citizens do not care about long-term power pools or export contracts. They want a President who connects with their frustration. Without that empathy, every explanation sounds like an excuse, even when grounded in fact.
Hichilema is a good President with a clear vision of modernising Zambia, but leadership requires grasping the psychology of hardship. People want to feel that their suffering is acknowledged and their anger understood. Political survival in 2026 will depend less on debt restructuring figures and more on whether homes and businesses have steady power, fuel is affordable, and food prices stop climbing.
We know UPND supporters will bristle at this, but truth is stubborn. If Bally wants to retain State House, he must treat energy not only as a technical constraint but as a political emergency. Zambia’s voters are not policy wonks. They are families who measure governance by light, fuel, and food.
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