Hakainde Hichilema, President of Zambia (elected on Aug 12, 2021 with 57.9% of the vote)

Hakainde Hichilema (born 4 June 1962) is a Zambian businessman, farmer and politician who is the seventh and current president of Zambia since 24 August 2021. After having contested five previous elections in 2006, 2008, 2011, 2015 and 2016, he won the 2021 presidential election with over 59% of the vote. He has led the United Party for National Development since 2006 following the death of the party founder Anderson Mazoka.

Prior to his election, Hichilema was a major opponent of Edgar Lungu, the President of Zambia from 2015 to 2021. On 11 April 2017, Hichilema was arrested and charged with treason, a move that was seen as an illegitimate act by Lungu to silence a political rival. The arrest and charge were widely condemned, with protests held in Zambia and abroad, demanding Hichilema’s release and condemning the increasing authoritarianism of Lungu’s regime. Hichilema was released from prison on 16 August 2017, and the charge of treason was dropped.

Hichilema is married to Mutinta and has three children. He is a baptized member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and on 12 December 2020, he and his wife got invested as Master Guides in Lusaka. Hichilema is a millionaire and the second-largest cattle rancher in Zambia.

In December 2014, he denied being a Freemason and labelled people accusing him as malicious. He also sued Bishop Edward Chomba of the Eastern Orthodox Church for defamation after the former called him a Satanist and a Freemason.

Hichilema was named in the Panama Papers, with the leak stating that he was the director of Bermuda-based company AfNat Resources Ltd from March to August 2006. The company engaged in nickel exploration in Zambia and other African countries. According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, “the company was listed on London’s alternative investment market until 2010 when it was purchased by Canadian mining company Axmin for about $14 million.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakainde_Hichilema

Edgar Lungu, Former President of Zambia (since Jan 25, 2015. Re-elected on Aug 11, 2016 with 50.3% of the vote; turnout 56.5%)

Edgar Chagwa Lungu (born 11 November 1956) has been the President of Zambia since January 2015. Under President Michael Sata, Lungu served as Minister of Justice and Minister of Defense. Following Sata’s death in October 2014, Lungu was adopted as the candidate of Sata’s party, the Patriotic Front, for the January 2015 presidential by-election. In the election, he narrowly defeated opposition candidate Hakainde Hichilema and took office on 25 January 2015.

Lungu was born 11 November 1956 at Ndola Central Hospital. After graduating with a LL.B. in 1981 from University of Zambia, he joined the law firm Andre Masiye and Company in Lusaka. He subsequently underwent military officer training at Miltez in Kabwe under Zambia National Service (ZNS). He then returned to practicing law. He then joined politics.

Lungu is married to Esther and has six children.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Lungu

Michael Sata, President of Zambia (died on Oct 28, 2014)

Michael Sata, President of Zambia

Michael Chilufya Sata (born in 1937) is a Zambian politician who has been the fifth President of Zambia since 23 September 2011. He leads the Patriotic Front (PF), a major political party in Zambia. Under President Frederick Chiluba, Sata was a minister during the 1990s as part of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) government; he went into opposition in 2001, forming the PF. As an opposition leader, Sata—popularly known as “King Cobra”—emerged as the leading opposition presidential contender and rival to President Levy Mwanawasa in the 2006 presidential election, but was defeated. Following Mwanawasa’s death, Sata ran again and lost to President Rupiah Banda in 2008.

After ten years in opposition, Sata defeated Banda, the incumbent, to win the September 2011 presidential election with a plurality of the vote.

Michael Chilufya Sata was born and brought up in Mpika, Northern Province. He worked as a police officer, railway man and trade unionist during colonial rule. He spent time in London working on the railway sweeping the platforms. Among other things, he was a porter at Victoria railway station. Sata began actively participating in the politics of Northern Rhodesia in 1963. Following independence, he worked his way up through the rough-and-tumble rank-and-file of the ruling United National Independence Party (UNIP) to the governorship of Lusaka in 1985. As Governor, he made his mark as a man of action with a hands on approach. He cleaned up the streets, patched roadways and built bridges in the city. Afterward he became a Member of Parliament for Kabwata constituency in Lusaka. Though once close with President Kenneth Kaunda, he became disillusioned by Kaunda’s dictatorial style and he left the UNIP to join the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) during the campaign for multi-party politics in 1991.

After Frederick Chiluba defeated Kaunda in 1991, Sata became one of Zambia’s most instantly recognizable faces. Under the MMD, he served as minister for local government, labor and, briefly, health where, he boasts, his “reforms brought sanity to the health system”.

In 1995, he was appointed as minister without portfolio, the party’s national organizing secretary during which his political style was described as “increasingly abrasive”.

Sata ran for President for a fourth time in the election held on 20 September 2011. In the early stages of the campaign he was more vitriolic in his anti-Chinese rhetoric, but he later toned down his rhetoric. Results showed him receiving about 43% of the vote against 36% for Banda, and Chief Justice Ernest Sakala accordingly declared that he had won the election in the early hours of 23 September. He was sworn in later in the day.

He was said to have won because of the urban vote. Despite the toning down of his rhetoric, the investment climate in Zambia was considered uncertain in the wake of his victory.

Rupiah Bwezani Banda, Former President of Zambia

Rupiah Bwezani Banda, a celebrated Zambian diplomat and politician, was born on February 13, 1937 in Gwenda, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

He married Hope Mwansa Makulu in 1966 and two have five sons. He was educated at Munali Secondary School, University of Ethiopia, Lund University in Sweden, Wolfson College and Cambridge.From 1960 to 1964 he was UNIP’s representative in Europe and was named Ambassador to the United Arab Republic in 1965, serving until 1967 when he was moved to USA to serve as Zambia’s Ambassador there for two years.

From 1970-74, Banda was the Executive Chairman of Rural Development Corporation and served as General Manager of National Marketing Board of Zambia. From 1974-75 he was Zambia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations where he also chaired the U. N. Council on Namibia.

He returned to Zambia to serve as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1975-1976. He also was chairman of the board for several corporations, among them Chipoza Holdings, Robert Hudson Ltd, Allenwest and Chiparamba Enterprises. He also served as M.P. for Munali for many years.

In September 2006, Banda was named Vice President, replacing Lupando Mwape who lost his bid for a Parliamentary seat.

In October 2008 he was elected president.

Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, Former President of Zambia

Levy Patrick Mwanawasa was born on Sept. 3, 1948 in Mufulira, Zambia. He was the 2nd born child in a family of 10.

He holds a law degree from the University of Zambia. He worked in private law firms from 1974 until 1978 when he formed his own firm Mwanawasa & Company. In 1985, Mwanawasa served as Solicitor General of the Republic of Zambia but went back to private practice the following year. He worked as senior partner in this firm until March 1992 when he was named as Vice President of Zambia in December 1991.

On Dec. 8, 1991, Mwanawasa while on duty was involved in a nasty road traffic accident in which his aide died on the spot. He suffered multiple body injuries. He was flown to Johannesburg South Africa for medical treatment. He remained in hospital for 3 months.

Mwanawasa served as Vice President of Zambia from 1991 until 1994 when he resigned citing gross abuse of office and corruption by some leaders and insubordination to him by some colleagues. In 1996, he contested presidency of MMD and lost. He retired from active politics again.
In August this year, the National Executive Committee elected Mwanawasa as its presidential candidate for the 2001 elections. He won the election, beating 10 other candidates including two former vice presidents.