By: Hopewell Chin’ono, Veteran Zimbabwean Investigative Journalist_
Dear President Hakainde Hichilema,
The naked violence by members of your political party, UPND, against your main challenger and opposition leader Brian Mundubile today in the Western Province is both embarrassing and tragic.
It is especially tragic because when you were elected in 2021, many progressives across Africa celebrated your victory precisely because you had endured similar persecution under your predecessor, the late President Edgar Lungu.
Many progressive Africans believed that someone who had experienced political intolerance firsthand would break that cycle, not perpetuate it.
Decent people believed you would lead Zambia away from violence and towards a politics where elections are contests of ideas, not intimidation.
What happened today undermines that hope.
If you win this election under the shadow of violence, intimidation, abuse of state power, and the systematic obstruction of your opponents, it will be a victory forever tainted.
Several opposition figures have already been sidelined through what many see as the misuse of state institutions.
Now the last credible challenger is being prevented from freely campaigning and speaking to the electorate.
That is not democracy, Mr. President. It is an abuse of incumbency, no different from the conduct of the Tanzanian president whose inauguration you attended after thousands of her own citizens were killed.
Democracy cannot coexist with violence, intimidation, and the systematic silencing of political opponents.
You may secure power through intimidation, just as other leaders in the region have done. But history does not honour victories won by fear and naked violence. Such victories carry no dignity and earn no respect among those who genuinely believe in democratic values, in Africa or anywhere else.
Publicly condemn this violence if you are not behind it, Mr President. If you are behind it, you don’t have to say anything.
You command the state. Zambia has a police service and security institutions like the military capable of preventing political violence. If your supporters continue to attack opponents while the state stands by, reasonable people will inevitably ask whether this violence is being tolerated, encouraged, or quietly sanctioned.
Silence is not neutrality, Mr President. It is complicity and an acceptance that you are the architect just like your brother next door has been doing.
If you believe in your record and in your mandate, then win this election fairly. Win it without violence, without intimidation, and without abusing the machinery of the state. That is what democrats do.
A democrat is defined not by rhetoric speeches about democracy, but by conduct when power is at stake. Today, your conduct, and that of your party, raises serious questions about those democratic credentials.
Power can be acquired through force. Respect cannot. History remembers both. Which one will it remember you for?
_Hopewell Chin’ono_
_Veteran Investigative Journalist_
_Harare, Zimbabwe_
_4 August 2026_