Kigali — Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa died in a French hospital on August 19, nearly two months after he was admitted as a result of suffering a stroke.
Mwanawasa's death has dealt a double blow to Southern Africa, not only generating fears of possible political instability in Zambia but also concern about the impact on the process of finding a solution in Zimbabwe.
Mwanawasa lacked charisma, wit and style. At rallies even his own supporters were fast bored by the former lawyer's monotone drawl. His ill-health and slurred speech, the results of a car crash, led to nasty jibes about his mental capacity.
When he narrowly won his first, disputed, presidential election in 2001, opponents dubbed him "the cabbage", deriding him as a stooge for others more powerful. On paper he ought never to have been president.
But off paper and in reality Mwanawasa made strides to fight corruption, secured healthy economic growth and kept politics clean. Debt was cancelled; aid and investment poured in.
At some political risk, Mwanawasa turned against his predecessor and one-time patron, Frederick Chiluba, who was charged with 168 counts of theft.
Chiluba was convicted of graft in a civil court in London last year. It was a rare success: few African leaders have been held to such account.
Mwanawasa was an outspoken critic of Mugabe, and once likened Zimbabwe to a "sinking titanic".
Describing Mwanawasa as a "good friend and comrade", the leader of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, said he had "left us at this most trying time".
Under the current constitution, which is under review, Zambians will have to head for fresh polls within 90 days.
As we bid farewell to Mwanawasa, let's hope his rather dull shoes can be appropriately filled and that Zambia can plod on.
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Its a shame on the editor of this article. You need to lean how to report with some respect and dignity and please have some respect in your articles. We Zambians are proud of the work LPM did and would not call his shoes dull.however your shoes may be the dull ones.
You are right.. Kigali whoever he is is very UNAFRICAN. I think he needs a brain transplant. He utterly failed to engage his brain before he wrote article.
In Zambia Kigali now means "unthankful fool". Does it make you(KIGALI) feel better to expose your wicked thinking to the world? Foolish
it worries me to see that journalists of this calibre are allowed to produce articles of this kind, worse still to have their work posted on the internet where they can mislead an even larger population! The views of the journalist were his personal opinion, more so that certain allegations are of such a nature that they would be difficult to justify even in a court of law. The calibre of writing only expected in a desparate gossip news paper! To you, Mr. Journalist, if i may be so polite, you are a shame to the journalism world, though you owe the Zambians no patriotism, your writing carries the tone of war and not peace. You write from your little chair with criticizm of a nation you neither know, nor understand!the fact that you write inspite of your tiny knowledge is shocking, to say the least! One would expect, that with the love this nation has given your poeple you would make better effort to understand that we are not a petty poeple who dwell on outside looks and persona, but on intellect and stature. The again, you lack both so why bother! Keep going Zambians, peaceful loving poeple! Your progress during Mwananwasa's time is more that commendable!
My Dear Editor, "Unlikely Hero": I cannot believe this nonsense really. If you have nothing to write about, then go to sleep you stupid Nyamulenge! Forgetting how you slaughtered each other a few years then ran to Zambia. Do you know how many Nyamulenges are now peacefully doing business in Zambia? We have accommodated them and this is what we get at a moment when we need all the sympathy and prayers really! Very sad, you are no better than Mugabe.
The New Times is not a satirical newspaper and so I'm equally shocked be the display of such disrespect. I don't understand that it went past all editorial checks. So this is a very unsavoury character, as we all agree. Now may I ask why you are calling him Munyamulenge? Where do you see that he is? And even if he was, what does his article have to do with his people? Are you casting the blame on all Banyamulenge? Are the Banyamulenge living in Zambia the ones who wrote this article? Your comment is so full of hatred I can just imagine you calling for punitive expeditions against them. Which makes you just as unpleasant. You read someone's comment and you want to drag a people's name in the mud. People he might not even belong to. Your comment stinks of xenophobia
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