Grow Zambia day: Hichilema opens the 14th Assembly with a five-year agenda, a unity appeal — and a fuel-tax decision that lands this month

The guard of honour has marched off, the 21-gun salute has faded over Parliament Buildings, and Zambia has its policy roadmap for 2026–2027. President Hakainde Hichilema officially opened the First Session of the Fourteenth National Assembly yesterday morning, his first address to the House since the 13 August election returned him to office, delivered under the theme Grow Zambia: An Agenda for Inclusive Growth and Opportunity for Every Zambian. “We extend our profound gratitude to the people of Zambia for re-electing us to serve a second term,” he told the chamber. “Their verdict is unequivocal: The people have chosen continuity, unity, progress and hard and smart work.”

The address, circulated by State House, leaned on the themes that carried the campaign. The President said recent constitutional reforms had produced a more inclusive legislature, with increased representation of women, youths and persons with disabilities; declared the election period behind the country; and called for collaboration in building the nation, reaffirming the Government's commitment to fighting corruption, safeguarding democracy and protecting peace and stability. The Grow Zambia agenda, he said, will be prosecuted across agriculture, mining and energy — the same tripod he took to the IMF mission chief two days earlier, when he pitched a successor programme as “complementary” to the plan.

The decision with the shortest fuse is at the fuel pump. Mr Hichilema announced the restoration of the excise duty on fuel, effective this month, arguing that the temporary tax waivers had been designed on the assumption that stability would soon return to the global fuel market — an assumption that did not hold. The restoration, he said, follows a review of the waivers as the Government moves to sustain spending on free education, the Constituency Development Fund, school feeding and social cash transfers. He paired it with a review of the Energy Regulation Board's monthly pricing mechanism, stronger management of the TAZAMA open-access pipeline, a fuel-blending strategy built on local ethanol, and a surprise for the motor industry: all government institutions will henceforth acquire only electric vehicles, with charging infrastructure to be built with the private sector. No timeline or costing was given for the transition.

What the speech did not contain was, for much of the gallery, the story of the morning. All week the pre-address argument had been about a clause the President has never proposed: Kazungula North MP Dr Clement Andeleki's declaration that two presidential terms are “not enough”, answered by former Mandevu lawmaker Christopher Shakafuswa's warning against tailoring the Constitution around one man. The circulated text of yesterday's address carries no reference to the term-limits debate at all — no sentence, as this newspaper urged on Friday, to put the matter to rest. Nor did it announce the reconciliation mechanism the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia and the historian Dr Chiputa had requested, with the opposition's treason and sedition defendants still in custody. Unity was the theme; its machinery was not on the order paper.

Sources: State House, “President Hichilema Opens 14th National Assembly, Calls for Unity” (9 Oct 2026, via APO Group); National Assembly of Zambia, order paper for Friday 9 October 2026; Lusaka Times, “Govt. Restores Excise Duty On Fuel” (9 Oct 2026); Makanday, “Hichilema Announces Electric-Only Vehicle Policy For Government” (9 Oct 2026); Mwebantu and Daily Mail on the IMF mission meeting (8 Oct 2026); Lusaka Times, “Two Terms Not Enough, Says Andeleki…” (8 Oct 2026); News Diggers on the EFZ appeal (8 Oct 2026).