MWANAWASA AND MAZOKA’S MIDNIGHT SECRET DINNER AT MARK CHONA’S HOUSE:
The Hidden Attempt To Alter Zambia’s Political Landscape
The Reality Is I Worked As Task Force Chairman Out of Duty, But Absolutely Hated The Job; We Didn’t Have Friends Or Relatives — Mark Chona.
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An excerpt from the book: Conversations with Memorable Personalities, Part 1 (2022) by Amos Malupenga (Pages 308 – 309).
Mark Chona: After that, I began to see that elections were going to take place [in 2001] and Chiluba was not going to be. I had no constituency, I was basically a catalyst to produce what became the Oasis Forum.
Unfortunately, after the elections things didn’t go well. I noticed that donors had said, ‘No’ to budget support and yet our people were suffering.
I didn’t think that the Supreme Court would rule in favour of the opposition in that presidential election petition. So, I said to the European Union that people were suffering. Eventually, they met President Mwanawasa and he was very convincing.
I knew Mr. Mwanawasa from the past. We had formed a company, Digital
Communications, together with Mr. [Emmanuel] Kasonde, Mr. [Andrew] Kashita and
Bwalya Ng’andu, myself and President Mwanawasa was there, in a way as a lawyer.
We used to meet at his place. I knew him from there but I didn’t want his position because of Chiluba.
I thought he would play exactly the way Chiluba would play the game.
After that I looked at the scandals and the information was plenty; it was awash. With
my little experience in this thing, we started planning with Mutembo how best we could do things.
We got President Mwanawasa sitting where you are sitting [in Chona’s house] and
Mazoka sitting here having dinner until up to about 01:30 in the morning. This was an
attempt to get President Mwanawasa and Mazoka to work together because this country doesn’t need too much politics. It needs more development.
The meeting went well but after that things didn’t go as well as one wanted.
Eventually, I ended up looking at what became the Task Force on Corruption.
Amos Malupenga: What was the Task Force initially, since you say you ended up with what became the Task Force on Corruption?
Mark Chona: Initially, we were basically looking at the Cobalt Scandal and the Challenger plane.
Malupenga: Was it you looking at the Cobalt Scandal and the issue of the Challenger plane?
Mark Chona: At that time, President Mwanawasa asked us to look at it. Since I don’t want to discuss these matters, I will end there and say that I got hooked to the Task Force [on Corruption]. I won’t say much except to say that like State House, the Task Force was like another university. This is a job I did out of duty. I didn’t like it.
Malupenga: Why not?
Mark Chona: You met too many distressing stories; we were dealing with people whom we knew. I used to tell the officers that I was taught when I was young the qualities of a police officer.
In the interview, they would ask all the normal questions but the last one was: ‘If your mother or father committed murder, would you arrest them?’ If you hesitated in answering that question, then you were disqualified.
So, in the Task Force, we didn’t have friends. If they did wrong, we didn’t have a choice,
we didn’t spare anybody. Otherwise, it will be selective justice. I didn’t like it because it was disappointing.
Malupenga: Disappointing, how?
Mark Chona: Disappointing that you met so many cases and you looked at so much money and you looked at what people had done. Then you look at the poverty levels and ask yourself, ‘You mean all this money could not have actually gone to assist people living in abject poverty?’
And the moment you thought of that, you really felt awful. …”
Picture caption: From left to right: Mark Chona, former US President Bill Clinton and Zambia’s Founding President Dr Kenneth Kaunda.
This was in July, 2007, in Lusaka, capturing a meeting during President Clinton’s multi-country tour of Africa.
He visited Zambia to advocate for and scale up the distribution of affordable anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) through the Clinton Health Access Initiative.
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