Zambia is now an Authoritarian StateBy Kanyanta Chanda KapwepweLet us stop pretending. Let us stop tiptoeing. Let us stop decorating the truth with polite language.
Zambia is now an authoritarian state under President Hakainde Hichilema. The signs are no longer subtle. They are loud, aggressive, coordinated, and unmistakable.
Today in Zambia: chiefs are threatened with treason. Priests are publicly intimidated. Students are suppressed.
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Civil society is terrorised. Dissent is reframed as tribal hatred. Protests are banned.
Critics are labelled enemies of the state. Cadres are unleashed on citizens. Parliament suspends opposition MPs for speaking their minds.
And now, even constitutional debate is treated like a personal attack on the President. What exactly is left of democracy?When the President’s feelings become national policy, when his insecurities become national threats, when his critics become national enemies, that nation is no longer free. And when citizens and civic institutions receive death threats simply for opposing Bill 7, it becomes clear that this is no longer a democracy in distress.
This is a democracy under attack. A government that tolerates death threats against civil society is not democratic. It is repressive.
But the most disturbing part of Zambia’s authoritarian climate is the behaviour of President Hichilema himself. A head of state who repeatedly describes criticism as “hatred”, who paints dissent as a tribal conspiracy against him, who warns protesters that he will unleash “those who are stronger” on them, is not practising democratic leadership. He is flirting with political intimidation.
He has mastered the language of fear. He is turning disagreement into an existential threat against the presidency. This is how authoritarians behave.
This is how authoritarian states are born. Not through coups. Not through tanks.
But through the slow, deliberate criminalisation of citizenship. Let President Hichilema hear this clearly:A government that fears dissent fears democracy. A President who criminalises criticism criminalises the people.
And a nation that normalises intimidation is no longer a democracy; it is an authoritarian state in disguise. Zambia is at a crossroads. We can either defend the democratic freedoms our forefathers fought for, or we can surrender them to a government that believes it is above scrutiny.
But history teaches a hard lesson: authoritarian regimes always fall the moment citizens stop being afraid. Right now, chiefs, bishops, students, professionals, women, youth, civil society, and the people of Zambia in general are running out of fear. And when fear disappears, authoritarian governments collapse under the weight of their own arrogance.
That is the path we are now on. And unless this government pulls back from its obsession with intimidation, it will not escape the fate of every authoritarian state before it. Zambia is not the President’s personal property.
Zambia is not a private company. Zambia does not belong to Community House. Zambia belongs to its people.
And the hungry people are angry. Kanyanta Chanda Kapwepwe is a governance analyst and senior lecturer at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He writes in his personal capacity.
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