Newly elected Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema took the oath of office before thousands of cheering supporters during a ceremony witnessed by several African leaders in Lusaka on Tuesday.
Hichilema became Zambia’s seventh post-independence president when he was sworn-in by the country’s Acting Chief Justice Michael Musonda at Heroes Stadium.
Also inaugurated was Zambia’s new Deputy President Mutale Nalumango, a former deputy speaker of parliament.
The ceremony was attended heads of state and government from several African countries, including Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi, President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Namibia’s President Hage Geingob and President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe.
Other dignitaries who attended the inauguration ceremony were from the United Kingdom, United States of America, Saudi Arabia, Ghana and high-level representatives from the African Union Commission, the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Hichilema, an economist popularly known as HH, beat former president Edgar Lungu in elections held on August 12 to become the seventh elected president of Zambia since independence in 1964.
JN/APA