LUSAKA (Reuters) – Frederick Chiluba, Zambia’s first democratically elected president who fought off corruption charges after standing down, has died aged 68, a government spokesman said yesterday.
The cause of death was not immediately clear. Chiluba suffered from a chronic heart problem and had been hospitalised in the past.
A spokesman for the Zambian government, Ronnie Shikapwasha, said Chiluba had died at five minutes past midnight, adding the government would release an official statement later in the day.
Chiluba had said he felt unwell yesterday evening and a doctor was called, a spokesman for the former president, Emmanuel Mwamba, told Reuters.
A former trade unionist, Chiluba led the copper-rich country for just over a decade after defeating liberation hero Kenneth Kaunda in multi-party elections in 1991.
Hailed as a democrat for helping dismantle Kaunda’s socialist single-party rule of 27 years, Chiluba was later charged with stealing nearly $500,000 of public funds.
