HH’S GLOBAL ENDORSEMENT AND BILL 7: A DRESS REHEARSAL FOR 2026
When a global newspaper of record places President Hakainde Hichilema among the best-performing leaders of 2025, it is not offering flattery; it is issuing a verdict. The Telegraph’s recognition lands with particular force in Zambia, where for years, political noise tried to drown out reform with cynicism.
That verdict, combined with the passage of Bill 7, reads less like an isolated moment and more like a dress rehearsal for what is shaping up to be a decisive UPND victory in 2026.Context matters. 
When Hichilema took office in August 2021, Zambia was not merely struggling—it was adrift.
A sovereign default in 2020 had slammed shut international credit lines. Investor confidence was shredded. Public finances were stretched thin, institutions weakened, and the economy was battered by COVID-19. As if that were not enough, climatic shocks tied to El Niño ravaged agriculture and power generation, compounding food insecurity and load shedding. This was the inheritance.
What followed was not populist theatre but the unglamorous work of repair. Debt restructuring—long avoided and loudly misrepresented by opponents—became the administration’s centrepiece. Negotiations with creditors created breathing room, restored credibility, and reopened Zambia’s engagement with the world. At the same time, public finance management was tightened, transparency elevated, and accountability reasserted. These are not slogans; they are systems. Systems are what markets, institutions, and citizens ultimately respond to.
The results are now visible. Growth projections of around 5.8 percent for 2025 are not abstract statistics; they reflect revived activity across sectors. Mining—Zambia’s economic backbone—is set for record production, buoyed by renewed investment and stronger governance. Investor confidence, once a casualty of policy inconsistency, has been painstakingly rebuilt.
This is precisely why the Telegraph’s judges described a turnaround from “basket case” to benchmark. The language is stark because the change has been real.
Equally important is President Hichilema’s diplomacy. In an era of sharpening global rivalries, Zambia has pursued pragmatic non-alignment—working with all, beholden to none. This balanced posture has reintroduced Zambia as a serious, predictable partner, capable of attracting capital without surrendering policy autonomy. It is a quiet but consequential shift, one that reinforces economic reform with geopolitical maturity.
Enter Bill 7. Its passage is not a footnote; it is a signal. Legislation that strengthens governance, clarifies rules, and modernises the state is the domestic counterpart to international confidence. Bill 7 tells investors that reform is institutional, not personal. It tells citizens that the rules of the game are being reset to endure beyond any single term. It tells political opponents that obstructionism has limits when reform commands both parliamentary momentum and public legitimacy.
Together, global recognition and domestic reform form a powerful narrative arc. They puncture the opposition’s central claim—that the country is worse off, that reform has failed, and that leadership is floundering.
One can argue politics; one cannot argue outcomes indefinitely. When a leader is ranked alongside figures as varied as Donald Trump, Cyril Ramaphosa, Emmanuel Macron, and Volodymyr Zelensky, it is not because of ideology but performance under pressure.
This is why 2026 increasingly looks less like a cliffhanger and more like a coronation by consent. Elections are not won by applause abroad alone, but international validation amplifies domestic trust. Zambians are pragmatic.
They know where the country was under the Patriotic Front (PF), they see where it is going under the UPND, and they recognise seriousness when it replaces spectacle.
The UPND’s advantage is not merely incumbency; it is coherence—policy aligned with principle, reform matched by restraint.
Opposition political parties may dismiss the Telegraph as foreign noise and Bill 7 as technical tinkering. That would be a mistake. These are the building blocks of durable power: credibility, competence, and continuity. If 2021 was about rescue and 2024–2025 about stabilisation, then 2026 will be about consolidation.
Landslides do not happen overnight; they are prepared by steady accumulation.
In that sense, the events of this year are indeed a rehearsal. The applause is not the point. The performance is. And if current trajectories hold, Zambia is heading toward an election where the verdict has already been previewed—decisively, domestically, and globally.
