By Thandiwe Ketiš Ngoma
When President Hakainde Hichilema stood before a crowd at a political rally in Choma, he was not speaking as an ordinary politician. He was speaking as the sitting Republican President of Zambia. What he said there matters deeply.
At that rally, the President told the people of Southern Province that during the previous regime, buses arriving from Choma at the Lusaka Intercity Bus Station were met with violence and that passengers were being beaten simply because they came from Choma. He went further and issued a chilling warning: if people failed to vote for him, once the opposition took over, they would be beaten. The message was simple and deliberate. Your safety depends on my continued rule.
That is not campaigning. That is coercion.
Let us be honest with ourselves. This is how authoritarianism announces itself, not with tanks, but with threats disguised as concern. A dictator is never a unifier. A dictator survives by dividing citizens, frightening them, and convincing them that only one man stands between them and chaos.
The claim about people from Choma being beaten at the Lusaka Intercity Bus Station is a lie. A bold one. A reckless one. Every Zambian knows it did not happen. There were no police reports. No hospital records. No media coverage. No public outcry. Because it never happened. It was invented on a rally stage to provoke fear and emotional loyalty.
And when a president lies so casually to his own people, it is not a mistake. It is strategy.
Yes, cadresim in markets and bus stations existed during the PF regime. That truth does not need exaggeration or distortion. It was wrong, abusive, and painful. But to now claim that cadresim was aimed only at Tongas or people from Southern Province is a blue lie that insults the intelligence of Zambians. Cadresim affected citizens everywhere, on the Copperbelt, in Lusaka, in Eastern Province, in Western Province, in markets, bus stations, and streets across the country.
Violence did not ask for NRCs. It did not ask for tribe. It did not ask for province.
So why is the President insisting on a regional version of suffering?
Because fear works best when it is personalised. Because division makes people easier to control. Because when leaders cannot unite a nation through performance, accountability, and inclusion, they retreat into tribal and regional mobilisation.
This is dangerous politics. It weakens national cohesion. It encourages suspicion. It quietly tells Zambians that some lives matter more than others, that some regions are perpetual victims while others are perpetual threats.
That is how nations fracture.
Mr President Hakainde Hichilema must be reminded firmly that he is not the president of Southern Province. He is not the president of Tongas. He is not the president of those who fear the opposition. He is the Republican President of Zambia, elected by votes from every province.
People from Northern Province voted for him. People from Eastern Province voted for him. People from Lusaka, the Copperbelt, Western Province, Muchinga, and North Western Province. Zambians from everywhere placed their trust in him, believing he would heal divisions, not deepen them.
Zambians did not vote for threats. They did not vote for lies. They did not vote to be ruled through fear.
They voted for unity, fairness, and democracy.
Mr President, it is wrong to claim that intercity cadresim only affected citizens from Southern Province. It is wrong to frighten citizens into voting. It is wrong to suggest that peace in Zambia depends on one man remaining in power.
Stop dividing the country. Stop rewriting history. Stop weaponising fear.
Zambia is bigger than you. Bigger than your party. Bigger than your region.
History does not forgive leaders who divide their people to survive politically. And Zambians are watching closely.