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(TALKZIMBABWE) Zimbabweans should learn from Chiluba saga

Zimbabweans should learn from Chiluba saga
Farai Tengende (alias) - Opinion
Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:08:00 +0000

ZIMBABWEANS have to learn lessons from the experiences in Zambia. Former President Frederick Chiluba ousted the Founding Father of independent Zambia, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda on the mantra of change and democracy. Have Chiluba's machinations any parallels with our very own Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party?

Interesting that those who preach about transparency and good governance rarely put them into practice when in office. If Chiluba was found guilty of defrauding the State, then it is morally right that he is relieved of his ill-gotten gains.

So it is very true what Lord Palmerstone said, that “Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests."

Chiluba was the darling of the West when he was fighting President Kaunda and ushering in the Washington Concensus' free market economic concepts and parcelling out the Copperbelt to investors from the West many of whom have since closed shop and left many Zambian workers out of work.

Chiluba was also responsible for the privatisation of many Zambian state enterprises and ushering in of unfettered access to Zambian resources to Western conglomerates.

Is it not pure satire that the same Western friends who supported his rise to power did eventually haul him before a court in London to be tried for graft?

The reaction of Chiluba when acquitted in a Zambian court of the same graft charges was pure theatre. He started bleating on about imperialists and their machinations. A bit too late for that, would you not say?

Any lessons for PM Tsvangirai and Finance Minister Tendai Biti in this Chiluba saga?

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Farai Tengende (alias) via email.

Labels: CHILUBA, MDC, NEOCOLONIALISM

posted by MrK @ 5:38 AM