Zambia: senior official rebuked

2008-07-14 21:14

Lusaka - A senior official in Zambia's ruling party was rebuked by the government on Monday after saying it was time to begin the process of choosing a successor for stricken President Levy Mwanawasa.

While Mwanawasa remained in a stable condition at the French hospital where he has been treated since a stroke on June 29, the opposition latched onto the comments by the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy's (MMD) information chairperson Benny Tetamashimba as evidence that Zambia was in a state of paralysis.

"I am not saying he should be removed now, but the party should begin looking for a successor," Tetamashimba, who is also deputy minister of works and supply, told AFP.

Although he did not directly link his comments to Mwanawasa's condition, Tetamashimba is the first official to have spoken openly about the succession of the president since he suffered a stroke while attending a summit in Egypt.

In a bid to limit the fallout, Information Minister Mike Mulongoti said Tetamashimba was speaking in his personal capacity.

"His views do not represent those of government," he told state radio.

Get back to work

But Hakainde Hichilema, leader of the opposition United Party for National Development, said the government had been brought to a halt by Mwanawasa's stroke, the second suffered by the 59-year-old in a little over two years.

"There is a need for government to get back to work. The sickness of the president should not bring government to a standstill," Hichilema told AFP.

"It appears nothing is happening in government as a result of the president being in hospital."

Tilyengi Kaunda, head of the smaller opposition United National Independence Party, also criticised the MMD for having public disagreements at such a sensitive time and said the issue should be discussed behind closed doors.

"As a party, we do not like to see our colleagues in the MMD quarrel among themselves over this matter because their statements can add to the tension in the nation," Kaunda, son of the country's founding president Kenneth Kaunda, said in a statement.

Mwanawasa has been in an intensive care unit at Percy Military hospital near Paris after being flown to France following his stroke.

Leader of Zambia since 2001, Mwanawasa has won praise from the West for his outspoken criticism of his southern neighbour, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

- SAPA