Death of leader a blow to opposition parties

The death of Zambian opposition heavyweight Anderson Mazoka has delivered a blow to an alliance of parties that was looking optimistically towards general elections at the end of the year. "Mazoka dominated opposition politics, having come close to being republican president in 2001, and he has remained the greatest obstacle to the MMD [the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy]," said University of Zambia political scientist, Neo Simutanyi. Mazoka, former boss of the Anglo-American corporation in Zambia, died in a South African clinic on Wednesday after a prolonged kidney illness. He was the founding president of the United Party for National Development (UPND), the strongest party in the three-member United Democratic Alliance (UDA). In a display of rage, UPND supporters on Thursday attacked Information Minister Vernon Mwaanga as he arrived to deliver a message on the government's funeral arrangements to mourners and party supporters who had gathered at Mazoka's house, in the capital Lusaka. "They dragged me to the ground and while I was lying on the tarmac, they kept on kicking me from one end to the other, saying I had let their brother down by joining MMD which had killed Mazoka," said Mwaanga. In the 2001 general elections Mazoka narrowly lost by just two percentage points to President Levy Mwanawasa, amid condemnation of the poll as seriously flawed by international observers. The UPND scooped 21 of the 22 parliamentary seats in his Southern Province home region. Mazoka's sudden death has left a vacuum in his UPND and the UDA, which he was expected to lead in this year's elections. Former finance minister Edith Nawakwi's Forum for Democracy and Development, and the United National Independence Party of Tilyenji Kaunda are the other two parties in the alliance. The UPND holds 43 of the 150 seats in parliament, and it is not yet known whether leadership of the alliance will fall to acting UPND president Sakwiba Sikota, or pass to Nawakawi, who was tipped to run as Mazoka's deputy in the UDA. Sikota has called for calm and unity, saying: "President Mazoka's vision was an open secret ... as he envisaged a better Zambia for all - we would therefore be failing him if we went against his vision. His death has come to us as a shock and surprise." nm/oa/he