Sata promised heaven on earth, but did not live to deliver. By Bryan Ainebyoona Garuga. Michael Chilufya Sata, Zambia’s fifth president, who has died in London at the age of 77, will be remembered with equal affection and derision as “King Cobra”. Gravelly-voiced as a result of years of chain-smoking, he was a seasoned and astute politician. Some Zambians loved him, others loathed him - but in his prime, Sata was a charismatic and witty speaker. For supporters who voted him into office in 2011, he was a no-nonsense man of action. For critics, the former policeman, trade unionist and taxidermist, was an authoritarian populist. What is undisputed is that he seemed to revel in scorched earth politics. Detractors, political foes, the media and even allies frequently came under attack from a man who earned the sobriquet “King Cobra”. “I would rather go to prison on behalf of the people of Zambia than keep quiet,” he once said. He once belonged to the United National Independence Party (Unip), then led by Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s first president, but later switched to the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). When the MMD thwarted his presidential ambitions, he broke away to form the Patriotic Front (PF) in 2001. Mr Sata finally achieved his life-long ambition to be president at his fourth attempt, winning elections in 2011 and unseating the incumbent Rupiah Banda. The irony is that after all his efforts, he was not able to finish his first term. Instead, he became the second Zambian president to die in office. And like Levy Mwanawasa, who passed away in 2008, Mr Sata died abroad. Some 50 years after Zambia became independent from British rule, it was a sad indictment of the country’s hospitals - but also, the lack of faith politicians had in them. In fact, Mr Sata was not even present in the country when Zambia turned 50 on 24 October. For some months in 2014 he had not been seen in public due to ill health. His last public appearance was in September when he managed to briefly attend the opening of parliament in Lusaka. By then his voice was weak and thin but he retained his jocular manner, and joked “I am not dead”. In January, an opposition politician was charged with defamation for calling him a potato. In June the authorities charged three opposition activists for claiming that he was dying. Sata’s surprise election victory, at the fourth time of asking, and a calm power transfer raised hopes things were looking up for his copper-rich but dirt-poor southern African nation. He vowed to be a champion of the poor, unveiling a plan to transform the country within 90 days by tackling corruption, lowering taxes, creating jobs and scoring a better deal with what he once called Chinese “infestors”. He once publicly upbraided his whole cabinet, threatening to collapse his own government if they did not do a better job. The final period of Sata’s rule saw a crackdown on political opponents and critical journalists who reported on his long-suspected illness and frequent “working trips” abroad, apparently for medical treatment. But it quickly became clear that the targets of his corruption fight were more often than not his political adversaries, including his predecessor Rupiah Banda, who was slapped with various graft charges and blocked from leaving the country.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:27:53 +0000
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