Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has died after suffering a stroke at the African Union summit in Egypt. Earlier reports of his death in Paris had been denied by Lusaka. His government had been used by the imperialists to pressurize Zimbabwe.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
By Caesar Zvayi
PRESIDENT Mugabe left Harare yesterday afternoon to join other heads of state and government at the burial of the late Zambian president, Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, who died last month.
PRESIDENT Mugabe left Harare yesterday afternoon to join other heads of state and government at the burial of the late Zambian president, Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, who died last month.
He was accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cde Simbarashe Mumbengegwi; and Minister of Rural Housing and Social Amenities, Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The President was seen off at the Harare International Airport by Vice President Joice Mujuru, the Minister of Information and Publicity, Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu; the Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda, service chiefs and several Government officials.
Vice President Mujuru will be Acting President in President Mugabe’s absence.
The burial, scheduled for Embassy Park today, is expected to draw 14 heads of state and government among them Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, South African President Thabo Mbeki, President Mbingu wa Mutharika of Malawi and Idris Derby of Chad.
Embassy Park is just opposite Cabinet offices where Mwanawasa held court over the past six years.
September 3 was chosen to coincide with Mwanawasa’s birthday. The Zambian president was born on September 3 1948 and would have turned 60 today.
Mwanawasa died on August 19 at Percy Military Hospital in Paris, France, having been flown there from Cairo after suffering a stroke on the eve of the African Union mid-term summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in June.
It was his second stroke in as many years.
Mwanawasa — Zambia’s president since January 2, 2002 — had been battling ill health since surviving a horrific car crash on December 8, 1991.
On August 20, President Mugabe sent a message of condolence to Zambian Vice President Rupiah Banda describing Mwanawasa’s death as a great loss to Sadc.
"It was with profound shock and sorrow that I learnt of the untimely death of our dear brother and colleague, His Excellency President Levy Mwanawasa," President Mugabe said in a statement.
His death, President Mugabe said, was a great loss not only to the people of Zambia, "but also to the Sadc and Comesa regions and indeed to the entire African continent".
"On behalf of the Government and people of Zimbabwe, and on my own behalf, I would like to convey to you, the Mwanawasa family, as well as to the government and people of the Republic of Zambia, sincere and heartfelt condolences. Zimbabwe shares your sorrow during this period of bereavement and mourning.
"May his soul rest in peace."
A lawyer by profession, Mwanawasa rose to prominence as leader of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy that ended the rule of founding president Dr Kenneth Kaunda in 1991.
Even though Mwanawasa was a vocal critic of Zimbabwe and President Mugabe’s re-election, a development that saw him lauded as a ‘‘champion of democracy’’ by the West, Zimbabwe and Zambia continued to enjoy excellent bilateral relations.
President Mugabe’s presence at the burial testifies to the excellent relations between the two neighbours, relations spanning the cultural, political, social and economic spheres.
The two countries were not only linked by the scourge of British colonialism, but enjoy cordial relations stretching to the pre-colonial halcyon days, a development that was exploited by British settlers in forming the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland that lasted the decade between 1953 and 1963.
President Mugabe’s presence at the burial testifies to the excellent bilateral relations between the two nations, relations spanning the cultural, political, social and economic spheres.
Mwanawasa is survived by his wife, Maureen, and four children — Chipokota, Matolo, Lubona and Ntembe. He also has two other children — Miriam and Patrick — from an earlier marriage.
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