Africa-Press – Zambia. Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has been the subject of a political smear campaign, with rumors circulating that he holds shares in African Life Financial Services, a company that recently won a contract to manage the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) under the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development. However, according to a recent article published by Zambian social commentator Shalala Oliver Sepiso, these rumors are unfounded.
“Despite the best efforts of Emmanuel Mwamba, Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba, Bowman Lusambo and many PF propagandists, President Hakainde Hichilema does not hold any shares in African Life Financial Services,” Sepiso writes. “Any references to HH being in AfLife are from around 2017 soon after Edgar Lungu became president of Zambia.”
Sepiso goes on to explain that any prior interests Hichilema may have had in the company were terminated in 2019 when he sold his shares for strategic reasons. “When the PF government put so much pressure on the company and threatened its survival, the then opposition leader was forced to sell his shares. The transaction was completed in 2020 way before UPND came to power.”
The commentator also provides evidence of AfLife’s long-standing business relationship with the Zambian government, which dates back to the era of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) in the 1990s. “AfLife has participated in public tenders in the past, before the UPND government came in office, and won,” Sepiso writes. “They also know that AfLife got these awards due to their technical competence, expertise and experience i.e. on merit.”
Sepiso also explains the history of AfLife’s ownership structure, which is majority Zambian-owned. “The two shareholders of Menel are Muna Hantuba and Valentine Chitalu,” she writes. “Hantuba is separate from Hakainde both as a legal and as a natural person and is not in government to raise any conflict of interest.”
The article concludes by calling for an end to the unfounded attacks on AfLife and President Hichilema. “These attacks on AfLife are not new: they have always been continued and unsubstantiated allegations stemming from around 2016,” Sepiso writes. “It’s time for the political opposition to focus on constructive engagement with the government and on finding solutions to the real challenges facing the country.”
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