In 2001, Zambia held tripartite elections to elect the President, 150 Members of Parliament and Councilors. Among the front runners where Anderson Kambela Mazoka of the United Party for National Development (UPND) and Levy Patrick Mwanawasa of the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD).

Mr. Mazoka’s campaign message was built around prudent economic management while Mr. Mwanawasa campaigned on the platform of continuity with change.

After the elections, Levy Patrick Mwanawasa emerged victorious in a controversial election which culminated into an election petition in the Supreme Court. Mwanawasa was sworn in as Zambia’s Third President. Through out his tenure of office, it become clear that Levy had bought into Mazoka’s message of prudent economic management and his holistic approach to fighting corruption.

Mwanawasa started to rigorously implement UPND’s policies away from the policies that saw him in Office. However the replication of the policies were conducted with some element of modification. For example, Mwanawasa rolled out a free Education policy from grade one to seven where as in Mazoka’s case Free Education was to be offered through out to University level. Mr. Mwanawasa went further to help himself with a variety of the UPND Manifesto benchmarks that saw him reduce inflation and interest rates and enabled him to fight corruption including introducing fiscal discipline in the public service. However, he lucked a tight mechanism to spread benefits to the poor through sectors such as health, education and infrastructure development. The poor got more poorer leading to a full blown rejection of the MMD along the line of rail to the UPND and PF.

Zambia’s debt relief gains under the A huge gap between the rich and the poor still exists and yet Mwanawasa was very committed to developing Zambia even if it meant borrowing policies and Members of Parliament from opposition political parties.

Clearly Dr. Mwanawasa will be remembered for fighting against the looting of the state treasury including thefts by Ministers and Civil Servants. He was a lone soldier in the fight against corruption promoting the rule of law rather than of men. It is no wonder the MMD Ministers got busy awarding themselves huge salaries and allowances when Mwanawasa was in hospital instead of praying for his full recovery. Seeing how the MMD have conducted themselves during the funeral of our deceased comrade President, one is shocked to see how those who could do just about anything for mwanawasa u-turn against Mwanawasa’s principle and wishes. We shall remember Mwanawasa as a strong leaders who reconciled the nation.