02:46 pm
Bad News for Zambia. . .and Zimbabwe
This didn’t get much coverage in the American press:
Levy Mwanawasa, the Zambian president who was laid low by a stroke hours before he was due to lead a band of African leaders in condemnation of Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe, died on Tuesday at a Paris hospital aged 59.
”I would like to inform the nation that our president, his Excellency Dr Levy Mwanawasa, died this morning at 10.30am at Percy Military Hospital,” Rupiah Banda, his deputy who has been acting president since Mr Mwanawasa suffered a stroke in late June, told the nation in a televised address. . . .
This is a double blow. Mwanawasa had emerged as a force for stability both in Zambia and the region. His country has rarely been more stable, and thanks to his leadership, it has the chance to become another Botswana. The big question now is whether Banda can sustain his legacy.
In addition, Mwanawasa was one of the few African leaders ready and willing to challenge Mugabe. He was expected to “stiffen the spine” of other African leaders at last month’s African Union meeting. Tragically, he was felled by a stroke hours before the meeting started.
The death of Mr Mwanawasa, whose health has been poor since a near-fatal car crash in the early 1990s, robs the continent of one of the few leaders prepared to pierce the veil of deference long afforded to Mr Mugabe. Along with his counterparts in Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Liberia, the Zambian leader was forthright in his condemnation of the abuses that saw the Zimbabwean strongman claim a new mandate after a one-man election in June.
In the weeks leading up to the June 27 run-off Mugabe said that “only God could remove him” as President. I’m sure he’s gloating right now, convinced that divine intervention struck down one of his most vocal critics.
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