Hichilema’s Second Term Must Deliver More Women in Leadership - NGOCC

The Non-Governmental Gender Organisations' Coordinating Council has congratulated President Hakainde Hichilema on his inauguration for a second term, while using its statement to press two specific demands, that people detained in connection with the recent election be brought before the courts without delay, and that the president use his power to nominate parliamentary seats to significantly increase women's representation in government.

In a statement issued 1 September and signed by Board Chairperson Beauty Katebe, NGOCC said Hichilema's first-term record "provides the benchmark for this new term," and welcomed his inauguration speech's conciliatory tone toward the opposition, an address MUVI has covered in detail. "A President serves all citizens, including those who did not vote for him," the statement said. "We therefore commend the President's conciliatory gesture toward the opposition and his call to embrace Zambians who felt differently in the just-ended elections."

That welcome came with a direct request attached. "In the spirit of genuine healing, we urge that persons currently in detention because of the just ended general elections, be brought before the courts of law without delay," NGOCC said, an apparent reference to the treason case MUVI has followed closely involving NRPUP's Brian Mundubile and Makebi Zulu, along with the eleven others held in connection with the Kabulonga security operation.

A CALL FOR WOMEN IN THE ROOM WHERE DECISIONS ARE MADE

NGOCC's sharpest and most specific demand concerned representation. Noting that preliminary results show women's representation in Parliament "remains far below the 50 percent threshold," the organisation called on Hichilema to use Zambia's constitutional provision for eleven nominated parliamentary seats "to deliberately and strategically increase the number of women in the National Assembly," citing both domestic constitutional provisions and Zambia's international commitments under the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. NGOCC went further, urging the president to appoint more women to Cabinet and other senior decision-making positions, "moving beyond the historically low representation that has characterised successive governments over the years."

The timing of that appeal is notable. MUVI has separately reported on the constitutional requirement that Cabinet ministers be drawn from sitting Members of Parliament, and on the wave of election petitions currently working through Zambia's courts, several of them involving senior figures whose parliamentary status remains legally unresolved. NGOCC's call effectively asks Hichilema to treat the nominated seats, one of the few appointment levers not tied to a contested constituency result, as a deliberate tool for correcting gender imbalance regardless of how those pending petitions are eventually decided.

GROWTH THAT REACHES THE HOME, NOT JUST THE STATISTICS

NGOCC also engaged directly with the "Grow Zambia" agenda Hichilema announced in his inauguration speech, urging that "unity in diversity" guide its implementation. The organisation was pointed about who bears the weight of economic hardship in Zambia. "As the country moves from stabilisation to growth, NGOCC emphasises that economic gains must translate into tangible benefits for households, particularly women, who form most of Zambia's poor," the statement said. "Expansion must indeed be felt in our homes, not only in national statistics."

NGOCC closed by describing the task ahead as considerable, requiring "the repair of fractious relationships across the political divide," and called on Hichilema to "lead from the front" to ensure his second term delivers inclusive governance, meaningful participation for women, and shared prosperity, while urging all Zambians to play their own part in building a united and peaceful nation.