Chishala Kateka Eyes Presidency In 2021 Polls

Absa Bank chairperson and former ZAMNET managing director Chishala Kateka has announced her intention to run for the presidency in next year’s elections under the relaunched New Heritage Party. 

Ms Kateka has reregistered the party after its founder, Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda, dissolved it following the 2015 presidential elections. 

Kateka, 64, was a founder member of the Heritage Party, having had a long background in finance. In 2017 she was appointed board chair at Barclays Bank Zambia - the first woman to hold the position in the bank’s history in Zambia. 

Until her retirement from business in 2014, Ms Kateka served as managing director of ZAMNET Communication Systems Ltd. 

The businesswoman announced her intention to run for the presidency on her Facebook page, adding that she had reregistered the Heritage Party.

“Dear friends, fellow citizens, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great delight to present myself to you in servitude as candidate for President of the Republic of Zambia in the 2021 Elections. I come with full support from a multitude of Zambians across the country through the New Heritage Party to lead Zambia to be a Premier Zambian Led Economic and Productivity Hub in Southern Africa,” she wrote.

She added that the party would be making “momentous announcements”, including some manifesto promises, in the next few days.

The Heritage Party previously received 0.34% of the vote in 2015’s presidential elections and just 0.02% of the popular vote in the 2011 National Assembly elections.