Recently in Lusaka, Zambia

ON Sunday during the inauguration of Zambia’s sixth President, Edgar Chagwa Lungu, there was no escaping the fact that his predecessor, the late Michael Chilufya Sata’s show continues.
There was also the possibility of Lungu losing the thunder to President Robert Mugabe who received a standing ovation from the appreciative 40 000 strong crowd who thronged the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka.
Lungu took over from Sata who died in London in October last year.
At the venue of the inauguration, Lungu’s moment finally arrived.
His road to nomination was a long and arduous one; a fairytale.
He rose from being a political nonentity to Justice and Home Affairs Minister then to President in the space of just over three months.
Prior to his nomination, serious infighting, intimidation and violence within the Patriotic Front (PF) Party had seen his campaign start on a false note.
The party was deeply divided over his candidacy, with the then Acting President, Guy Scott attempting to block Lungu’s rise at every turn while trying to position his preferred candidate for the party’s top job.
Following a string of accusations, suspensions, court injunctions and public spats that played out in the media, the party only united behind Lungu days before the nomination of presidential candidates on December 20 2014.
With only a month to campaign, Lungu rode on Sata’s popularity and charisma, using continuity as a platform to position and endear himself with the electorate.
Lungu is reported to have told a journalist that he ‘had no vision’ of his own when asked about his policies during a radio interview in December. He said he would simply implement Sata’s policies.
The PF’s campaign materials reflected this, giving Sata’s face prominence and placing Lungu’s smaller image below it.
The case was the same during his inauguration as images of the revered Sata were constantly beamed on the giant screen to wild cheers while some openly wept.
As he began his journey, the task of imprinting his own identity would be his biggest challenge.
The weight of continuing with the massive development programmes started by the late Sata bears heavily on Lungu who narrowly won against his closest rival Hakainde Hichilema.
Lungu, 58, won about 48,3 percent of the ballot in Zambia’s 150 constituencies while Hichilema, a wealthy businessman and economist who leads the United Party for National Development, received about 46.7 percent of the vote in an election that exposed serious tribal divisions in the country.
A few months ago, Zambia reformed the mining tax regime, forcing the mining companies to calculate tax based on production rather than sales.
A drive around Zambia shows that in terms of infrastructure development, the country could soon catch up with Zimbabwe. Under Sata, Zambia set out an ambitious economic plan anchored on massive infrastructure development and prudent financial management.
All this bowed down to flexible and clear policies by the Sata administration.
Opening the Third Session of the 11th National Assembly in September 2013, Sata pledged to continue growing the economy through heavy investment in key infrastructure development areas such as roads, railways and airports.
Government’s commitment is demonstrated by the implementation of the Link Zambia 8 000 project, under which, over 1 500 kilometres of road works are being constructed in phase one and over 2 700 kilometres of roads will be upgraded to bituminous standard under phase two.
The Link Zambia 8 000 project is expected to create 24 000 jobs, especially among youths.
So far, it has created about 14 000 jobs.
The Head of State also cited the launch of the Lusaka 400 road project which involves rehabilitation and construction of some urban roads.
Zambia has also started implementing the Pave Zambia 2 000 project which is expected to create over 20 000 jobs for youths and impart them with road-paving construction skills.
A commitment to reactivating the railway infrastructure has been shown by the allocation of US$120 million of the Eurobond to Zambia Railways Limited by the Government.
“Our vision is to create a competitive and efficient railway system which will ensure that all bulky and heavy cargo is offloaded from the roads,” President Sata said then.
“This will guarantee our road network a longer lifespan and also reduce the national budget on road rehabilitation and maintenance.”
Lungu said under the Patriotic Front administration, the performance of the economy has continued to be positive, recording growth in the gross domestic product of 6,8 percent and 7,3 percent in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
In Zambia, there too was an attempt to tarnish President Mugabe’s name.
A ‘demonstration’ by Hichilema’s supporters against President Mugabe whom they accused of ‘helping’ Lungu to ‘rig’ the elections was largely obscured by the grand reception the Zimbabwean leader got at the National Heroes Stadium.
Yet Zimbabwe could learn a lot from Zambia’s way of doing things in order to maintain its status as one of the most developed nations in the Southern African region.
It all requires clarity and flexibility on policies.
And of course President Mugabe cannot do it all alone.