Zambian president names new mines minister

Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema on Tuesday announced the appointment of lawmaker Paul Chanda Kabuswe as the country’s new minister of mines and minerals.

Kabuswe, member of parliament for Chililabombwe, in Zambia’s northern copperbelt, was expected to be sworn in on Wednesday, the president’s office said in a press statement.

Hichilema also designated Francis Chipimo to act as central bank governor following the resignation of the current governor, Christopher Mvunga, the statement said. Chipimo has been serving as the deputy central bank governor of operations.

Africa’s second-biggest copper producer is in a protracted debt crisis that Hichilema, who won a landslide election victory last month over incumbent Edgar Lungu, has promised to resolve.

Lungu’s mines minister, Richard Musukwa, was also member of parliament for Chililabombwe before Kabuswe took his seat. The copperbelt province as a whole, a perceived Patriotic Front stronghold, delivered a surprise win for Hichilema’s United Party for National Development (UPND).

(By Chris Mfula and Helen Reid; Editing by Alexander Winning and Andrea Ricci)