Government says \u00a0Lt. Habwela Hichilema, son of President Hakainde Hichilema, was officially commissioned as a military officer in the Zambia National Service (ZNS) following a rigorous training programme in which he reportedly received no preferential treatment.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a joint press briefing with ZNS in Lusaka, Ministry of Information and Media Permanent Secretary Thabo Kawana dismissed speculation that the President\u2019s son was given special privileges during training.<\/p>\n
Mr Kawana said the young officer cadet shared basic accommodation with three others, dug and slept in his own trench during a week-long bush exercise, and was only recognised by some instructors and fellow cadets as the President\u2019s son during commissioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cLt. Habwela Hichilema lived and trained like every other officer cadet, he participated in all scheduled training activities, including bush exercises, and endured the same hardships as his colleagues. When necessary, he was subjected to disciplinary measures like any other trainee.\u201d Mr Kawana said.<\/p>\n
ZNS Public Relations Officer, \u00a0Brigadier Mable Nyone said ZNS felt privileged that\u00a0\u00a0 the First Family chose it for his training, a decision she said the institution views as an honor.<\/p>\n
She urged the public to see him as an individual forging his own path.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Fellow Trainees have defended the President\u2019s Son, against claims of favoritism during military training, offering a detailed and emotional account of the young man\u2019s physical and mental resilience throughout the program.<\/p>\n
Captain Siva Asani, recalled a moment early in the program when he encountered the President\u2019s son at the clinic, suffering from severely swollen legs due to the intense physical demands of training.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat caught my attention, as a health professional, I knew what that kind of pain meant, but he didn\u2019t stop. He continued participating in all activities, even those that were physically draining,\u201d Captain Asani said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s someone who believes in doing things by the book. Even toward the end of training, during long hours of parade rehearsals, he kept encouraging us. He would whisper, \u2018This is our commission, we must give it everything,\u201d Asani said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe worst thing you can do to someone who has gone through military training is to claim they didn\u2019t earn it. That would be unfair, we went through every phase, breaking down, rebuilding, and preparation. He was there, every step of the way,\u201dhe added.<\/p>\n
Another trainee Sherry Kalela, praised Lt. Habwela Hichilema for his humility and strong work ethic, saying he completed training like any other recruit, without seeking or receiving special treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe trained with us from day one, ate what we ate, and did every task assigned, No instructor gave him anything extra, he earned everything,\u201d She said.<\/p>\n
Another officer, Jack Zimba, added that it was unfair for anyone to suggest the President\u2019s son didn\u2019t train, pointing out that he only revealed his identity on the day of commissioning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Government says \u00a0Lt. Habwela Hichilema, son of President Hakainde Hichilema, was officially commissioned as a military officer in the Zambia National Service (ZNS) following a rigorous training programme in which he reportedly received no preferential treatment. Speaking at a joint press briefing with ZNS in Lusaka, Ministry of Information and Media Permanent Secretary Thabo Kawana […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latestnewsright","category-local","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1352,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1350\/revisions\/1352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zanis.gov.zm\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}