Hichilema blunders again

Today, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will hold the 44th ordinary summit of Heads of State and Government in Harare, Zimbabwe. The SADC Summit is accountable for the regional bloc's overall policy direction and control of functions of member states. It is the policy-making institution of SADC. The ordinary SADC summit convenes annually and is attended by Heads of State and Government from the SADC community.

During the 44th SADC summit, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa will take over the SADC chairpersonship from his Angolan counterpart President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço.

But for reasons best known by himself, Mr Hakainde Hichilema will not be attending this year's 44th SADC summit in Harare but instead he has delegated the functions to his amateur Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Mr Mulambo Haimbe. We are not surprised with the attitude adopted by Zambia because we are fully aware of this President's pettiness, inexperience, and puppetry stance.

In his ignorance, Mr Hichilema thinks that by staying away from the summit, he is isolating and humiliating President Mnangagwa and the Zimbabweans, yet the opposite is true. It's actually Mr Hichilema and Zambia that are losing out when it comes to mobilisation of regional solidarity, coordination, and support on key issues. The negative spillover effects on this diplomatic miscalculation will be heavily felt at the most critical time in the nearest future.

Diplomacy demands sobriety, maturity, and wisdom in dealing with regional, continental, and transcontinental matters. So, whether Mr Hichilema has issues with his Zimbabwean counterpart or not, dealing with the matter in the manner he has done is not only unwise but highly reckless too. This is not the first time Zambia and Zimbabwe have found themselves on the opposite end of an argument.

The late presidents Levy Mwanawasa and Robert Mugabe faced a more intricate and tension rising diplomatic emergency, but the duo, with the help of president Thabo Mbeki, navigated the crisis with a lot of wisdom, tact and maturity. Equally, Mr Hichilema has a grave responsibility to handle this matter with equivalent style. Snubbing the summit that would model the future of our region's development and foreign relations only leads to isolation and intensification of the crisis.  

What kind of puppet leadership is this? We ask a question to people within the UPND who think our observations on these matters are driven by malice and mischief? With such elementary diplomatic miscalculations, how does one describe Mr Hichilema's ignorant and irrational handling of foreign relations matters?

Isn't this outright puppet leadership? Well, the writing on the wall is clear, Mr Hichilema is a sell-out and a puppet of neocolonial forces. At present and for the first time in our history, Zambia has a leader who has been captured by transnational corporations and global imperialist forces. Zambians already know that Mr Hichilema is not only a front, but also an instrument of neocolonial special interests. And like all puppets, Mr Hichilema's governance style exposes a deep reputation for intellectual laziness, diplomatic spinelessness and a severe addiction for state power by just playing the role of President rather than enthusiastically shaping the nation's foreign relations, development agenda as well as corroborating and developing consensus with fellow African leaders to establish an independent and dignified direction and vision for the future of our nation and our continent in general.

Mr Hichilema is operating on the end of a string held by his puppet masters. Even his diplomatic travels can only go as far as his puppet masters or foreign handlers are willing to stretch out the string that is yoking him. It's a pity that Mr Hichilema clearly underestimated the repercussions of the imperialist links and covenants he entered into when seeking office. He lacks alertness of how he is being used and the consequences of this for our national sovereignty, security, and development interests.

A leader whose supervisory competence and decision-making are solely tied to the agenda of the string pullers even when that agenda is clearly in contrast with our national values and interests is a disaster. How can it be that Zambia, a country with such a rich liberation struggle history, is among the evil forces dividing the region and supporting colonialism in the 21st century?

By snubbing the SADC summit in Harare, Mr Hichilema has scored a diplomatic own goal. It's time Zambia returned to its traditional non-aligned position in the geopolitical arena!
Fred M'membe
President of the Socialist Party