Hakainde Hichilema is the President of Zambia
Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema has come out fighting after a bruising month that saw him come under attack by stone throwers as he was trying to make a speech.
Video clips of him crouching and then being whisked away from a rally in the Copperbelt province shocked Zambians and many people, irrespective of their political affiliation, condemned what happened.
But with nine months to go until elections and a run for a second term, the president is under pressure.
On Tuesday, in his first press conference for 18 months, Hichilema set out to defend his record and laid out his achievements on the key issues of the economy and power generation.
“This level of hatred is shocking, you can see and even touch the venom,” he said, while appealing for Zambians to love each other.
But the message may not hit home with those who are continuing to struggle day to day.
The president has lost touch with “the real pulse of the people”, according to an opposition candidate to be mayor of the capital, Lusaka, Simon Mwila, who was trying to explain why people were throwing stones “rather than flowers”.
Sishuwa Sishuwa, a Zambian historian and senior lecturer at South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, argues that the president has turned his back on what he once stood for.
“In power and over the last four years, Hichilema has turned out to be nearly everything he detested about his predecessor, Edgar Lungu, and, in some cases, much worse,” the academic told the BBC.
This is a charge rejected by the president, who pointed out his record on solving the debt crisis that he inherited and stabilising government finances.
On 8 November, Hichilema may have hoped for a friendlier reception in Chingola town, particularly as he had arrived with $450,000 (£340,000) to go towards rebuilding a local market that had been destroyed in a fire.
Instead, an angry crowd forced him to abandon his address.
Police blamed the trouble on “unruly members of the public” who were allegedly looting local shops. At least 27 people have been arrested for violence and arson.
At his press conference this week, Hichilema accused illegal artisanal miners of being behind the violence as his government was trying to crack down on this unregistered work.
“We will not allow any thuggery to return ever again,” he said.