LUSAKA-(MaraviPost)-As President Hakainde Hichilema prepares to name his new Cabinet, human rights defender Laura Miti has called on him to resist the urge to reward political allies and instead appoint leaders focused on delivering services to rural Zambia.
With the final batch of Members of Parliament now sworn in, attention has turned to State House and the ministerial list that will shape the next five years.
For Miti, the choice at the Ministry of Finance is clear. “You don’t fix a perfectly running vehicle,” she said, signaling support for continuity in the economic docket.
Her greater concern lies elsewhere. Miti said this term must be about bringing Zambians who live far from provincial and district capitals into what she called “real citizenship.”
For millions in villages beyond the bomas, she argued, being born in rural Zambia still feels like a curse, a near certainty that without luck and extraordinary effort, potential will go unrealized.
To change that, Miti wants the new Cabinet to move fast on basics that have been missing for decades. She called for feeder roads to be graded and graveled so vehicles can move at 50 km per hour instead of crawling at 10 km or getting stuck entirely.
She urged government to sink lasting boreholes within walking distance of every settlement, so women are not spending half their lives searching for water that is often unsafe.
She said teachers and nurses posted to deep rural areas must be given decent accommodation, otherwise they will keep leaving and children will keep paying the price.
Miti also pushed for expanded electrification and phone connectivity, for employment rules that prioritize local people over workers bussed in from Lusaka and the Copperbelt, and for Constituency Development Funds to reflect community needs.
“If people ask for boreholes,” she said, do not give them ambulances when there are no roads to drive them on.”
She further proposed fixing Ward Development Committees by aligning their term to the five-year electoral cycle and paying members a salary, arguing that treating such a critical local role as voluntary only breeds ineffectiveness and corruption. On agriculture, she stressed timely delivery of inputs and prompt payment for crops.
Beyond the policy list, Miti identified the ministries where leadership will matter most. After Finance, she named Local Government, Agriculture, Education, Health and Community Development as the portfolios that will determine whether rural lives actually improve.
She said a Minister of Local Government who truly believes in decentralization could transform service delivery, especially if they ensure that Equalisation and CDF money is used properly and for the long term.
Her sharpest warning was on Permanent Secretaries. “Please please President Hichilema, do not use the Permanent Secretary position to reward political friends,” Miti said.
She described the PS as the most critical post in government and urged the President to promote from within the civil service, looking to the provinces where skilled officials are already serving.
“If political rewards are necessary,” she suggested, the foreign service is a better place for them. She also flagged the government’s communication function as urgently in need of reform.
Miti closed with a challenge to measure the new Cabinet not by motorcades or perks, but by impact.
“It would also be amazing to have a situation where citizens could concretely tell the difference between a time, like now, when there is no Cabinet and when it is appointed. A difference more than the number of V8s on the road, and increased belt sizes.”
President Hichilema is expected to announce appointments in the coming days.
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