Chiluba hailed as ‘great man’ at his funeral

LUSAKA, Monday

Zambia’s former president Frederick Chiluba was hailed as a “great man” on Monday, in a nationally broadcast funeral for the leader who ushered in multi-party democracy but became mired in graft claims.

“All the people, the young and old, have said that he was a great man,” President Rupiah Banda told about 4,000 mourners at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Lusaka.

“The visitors that have come have described the president in the exact fashion that Zambians described, that he was a great man.”

The 68-year-old leader, who ruled the southern African country from 1991 to 2001, died at his home on June 18, after suffering a seizure.

He had been battling acute heart and kidney problems.

Chiluba was buried alongside his successor in office, Levy Mwanawasa, at cemetery grounds reserved for former presidents.

The service was broadcast on state television, with special screens set up in sports fields and community centres in villages across the country.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Joseph Kabila and Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai both attended the service.

Chiluba was credited with turning the page on the autocratic rule of the country’s founding father Kenneth Kaunda, who also attended the service.

But Chiluba’s image was later tainted by embezzlement charges. He was tried for stealing $500,000 in public money during his time in office, but was acquitted in 2008.

Last year a Zambian judge refused to recognise a ruling by a London court that found him and his associates guilty of siphoning $46 million from the state coffers.

If the Zambian courts had recognised the ruling, he would have had to pay back the money.

“If he was a guilty person, Chiluba would have run away to another country. But he didn’t and he was cleared,” Banda told mourners.