Lungu faces fierce criticism

– Nearly a year after coming to power in a contested election, Zambian President Edgar Lungu is facing a growing chorus of criticism over his government’s moves to clamp down on dissent.

“Zambia eminently qualifies to be branded a dictatorship,” the country’s religious leaders said in a rare statement – the latest sign that opposition to Lungu’s authority is spreading.

At the heart of the tensions is the arrest and continued detention of opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema, a wealthy businessman who has run for president five times, and narrowly lost out to Lungu in August last year.

His United Party for National Development (UPND) unsuccessfully tried to contest what it called a stolen election, and in April Hichilema was arrested on treason charges after his convoy allegedly refused to give way to the presidential motorcade.

He has since been moved to a maximum security prison. Tensions are mounting even as the government battles slowing economic growth after prices plunged for copper, the country’s key export, leading to soaring inflation and unemployment.

“What crisis? There is no crisis,” Lungu told journalists on Friday.

But such claims have failed to sway many outside observers, with Amnesty International’s Southern Africa director Deprose Muchena warning in April that Hichilema and his aides were “victims of long-standing persecution” by the authorities, facing charges that are designed to “harass and intimidate” – AFP