President Lungu's New Special Assistant

Having fired Kaizer Zulu, President Lungu has appointed Chris Zimba as his new State House Special Assistant for Politics.

Zimba, who expressed surprise at the appointment, has since deleted his social media accounts after a number of his former posts attacking the President were re-circulated on social media after his swearing-in, causing some embarrassment.  

Among the comments posted on Zimba’s accounts were one calling President Lungu a “corrupt” leader.

“A corrupt President with abnormal wealth cannot teach us to fight corruption. Lungu needed to repent on yesterday in Parliament,” Zimba wrote.

In a post from April 2018 Zimba had spoken of his desire to see President Lungu either impeached or removed from office in the next elections. He is also quoted as stating, “We betrayed ourselves coz we had better lidas in Chipimo, HH or Nawakwi in 2015 or 2016 but voted for the worst Lungu Wabantu.”

Commenting on the deletion of Zimba’s social media accounts civil society activist Laure Miti stated, “It contained scathing criticism of the President and presidency. That is worrying because his analysis was largely on point. Does trying to erase the memory of his prior views mean that Mr Zimba intends, like Antonio Mwanza and Dora Siliya before him, to unsay all he said before.”

“What the President needs is some honest analysis of the state of the nation. That seems to be in critical short supply around him,” Miti added. 

Zimba was previously a political adviser to NDC President Chishimba Kambwili.