7Hichilema swears in 24 Cabinet ministers as Laura Miti and opposition leaders question 30-ministry government
President Hakainde Hichilema has appointed and sworn in 24 Cabinet ministers and ten provincial ministers at State House in Lusaka, putting most of his second-term government in place a day after the National Assembly approved his plan to raise the number of ministries to 30.
The appointments, made under Article 116(1) and Article 117(1) of the Constitution, fill new portfolios for Electricity, Petroleum, Industry, Trade and Exports, Skills and Higher Education, and Culture and Arts. They come as human rights activist Ms Laura Miti, Socialist Party president Dr Fred M’membe and the Citizens First party question why government is growing while programmes serving rural Zambians are under financial strain.
The biggest economic appointment went to Ms Brenda Tambatamba, who takes over the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development. She served as labour minister in the President’s first-term Cabinet and, before entering politics, worked as sustainability manager at Barrick’s Lumwana mine.
Ms Tambatamba now leads a sector the government wants to expand to three million metric tonnes of copper a year, close to triple current output.
The former Ministry of Energy, now split in two, is handed to two men who have both run it before. Mr Peter Kapala, energy minister from 2021 to 2024, heads the new Ministry of Electricity. Mr Makozo Chikote, who succeeded him in that role, takes the new Ministry of Petroleum.
