Zambia's Election Nobody Believes

Rob Rose and Zukile Majova are joined by Patrick Smith from Africa Confidential for episode 21 of Sharp Sharp, the weekly podcast on South African politics, money and power from the Financial Mail and Scrolla.Africa.

Patrick unpacks Zambia's disputed election, where incumbent president Hakainde Hichilema was declared the winner with 60% of the vote, but mismatched turnout figures between the presidential and parliamentary ballots, an opposition leader now in hiding after an armed raid on his home, and a jailed bishop have left many unconvinced. Rob, Zuks and Patrick ask why SADC, the regional body meant to hold governments to account, stayed almost entirely silent on it.

From there, the conversation turns to South Africa's own zama zama crisis, the illegal mining economy that has become impossible to ignore, and the wider pattern of artisanal mining stretching from Ghana to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The episode closes on a brewing scandal for the DA. Finance spokesperson Mark Burke is accused of moving R4 billion offshore in breach of exchange controls, and Zuks and Rob ask what it could mean for Helen Zille's campaign to become mayor of Johannesburg.