Levy Mwanawasa, president of Zambia, died in a French hospital nearly two months after suffering a stroke during an African Union conference. He was 59. “Zambia has lost a visionary, a leader who transformed the economy of this country,’&rsquo
Levy Mwanawasa, president of Zambia, died in a French hospital nearly two months after suffering a stroke during an African Union conference. He was 59.
“Zambia has lost a visionary, a leader who transformed the economy of this country,’’ said Kenneth Kaunda, the country’s first post-independence leader who ruled from 1964 to 1991. Vice President Rupiah Banda, his likely successor, declared a week of national mourning. Elections are expected to be held within 90 days.
A former lawyer, Mwanawasa, was a corruption fighter and won praises from Western countries for free market policies and building the country’s international reserves to more than a billion dollars. But despite economic growth at over 6 percent as Africa’s largest copper producer, benefits did not trickle down to the poor.
He defended China’s major role in the country’s mineral sector. Africa “is in the hands of Europe” but needs China’s economic aid, Mwanawasa told an audience of American students in 2007.
“You people in the West redeem yourself before you begin attacking China.”
Always outspoken, he was one of the few African critics of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
Special to the NNPA from GIN
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