Zambia
Zambia's Hichilema urged to walk the talk after 'slow' start
While in his first 100 days in office Hichilema had reassured investors, he has been seen to drag his feet on promises to fight corruption and reduce poverty,...
Earlier this week, the utility confirmed that a major incident occurred in Zambia affecting the entire Southern African network as power is imported from Cahora Bassa.
President Hakainde Hichilema handed Denny Kalyalya his old job, a year after the former World Bank executive director was removed with no reason given.
Zambia's newly elected president Hakainde Hichilema also vowed to restore respect for human rights and liberties eroded under his predecessor.
Hakainde Hichilema, 59, will take the oath of office before a crowd that will notably include opposition politicians from regional countries as well as current and former African leaders.
After a campaign dominated by the country's economic woes and marred by sporadic violence, Hichilema garnered 2,810,757 votes against 1,814,201 for the incumbent Lungu in Thursday's election, according to nearly final results.
The 64-year-old, who came to power in 2015, said that when he had to serve out the term of his predecessor Michael Sata who died in office, that victory had been "unexpected" and he "accepted it with humility and gratitude".
The 59-year-old veteran opposition politician beat his long-time rival Lungu following a bruising race held against the backdrop of deteriorating standards of living.
Results from around 40 of the constituencies that have so far reported place the veteran 59-year-old opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema, ahead of Lungu, who is 64.
Thursday's vote presented a test of democracy in the usually peaceful southern African nation country of more than 17 million people, where rising living costs appear to have diminished support for Lungu, who is accused of growing increasingly iron-fisted since taking office in 2015.
Sixteen presidential candidates are vying for the top job, but the frontrunners are incumbent Edgar Lungu, 64, and his long-time nemesis Hakainde Hichilema, a business tycoon, who are facing off at the polls for the third time.
The UPND, the main rival to the ruling Patriotic Front (PF), is eager to tap into mounting disillusionment in the city's poorest neighbourhoods, where dissent has grown since the last 2016 poll.
The August 12 ballot is essentially a two-horse race between longstanding adversaries -- President Edgar Lungu, 64, and Hakainde Hichilema, 59, who is making his sixth bid for the top job.
In several parts of the country, supporters of the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and the United Party for National Development (UPND) opposition have clashed using machetes, axes, slashers, catapults and other objects. Violence has been reported in the Zambian capital Lusaka as well as Northern, Southern and Muchinga provinces.
International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor delivered a tribute during a virtual memorial service on Thursday.
Kenneth Kaunda’s son, Kaweche, said his father’s last wish was to be buried next to his wife Betty but the government said that he could be exhumed later to be reburied there.
Former Zambian leader Kenneth Kaunda is being laid to rest following his passing last month.
Kenneth Kaunda always carried a white handkerchief - an item that he said symbolised love and peace, and which he started carrying while incarcerated during the struggle for independence.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the standard of leadership that the late former Zambian President left and his ideals would continue to live on.