Former First Lady quits: There is more to life than Politics
Maureen Mwanawasa
Former First Lady Maureen Mwanawasa has quit politics saying she is a professional person and has a lot to do apart from politics.
Maureen wife to late President, Levy Mwanawasa came to political limelight in 2016 when she joined the opposition UPND and participated by contesting the Lusaka Mayor position she lost to Wilson Kalumba of PF.
She has been quite after the much disputed elections of 2016 until now when she has broken the silence of her resignation.
Some people have however suggested that she intends to join the PF hence her quiting UPND the position she dismisses.
A few weeks ago her counterpart Dr Christine Kaseba, the widow to former president Michael Sata was appointed as Ambassador to France.
Mrs Mwanawasa says she has nothing against the UPND and has told those throwing tantrums that she had been bought to join PF to take a chill and see if she will join the ruling party.
“It’s my constitutional right to decide what I want to do. I am a professional person and I have gone back to my profession, what’s the beef? I don’t know why people would want to start spreading rumours that maybe I have been given a job in PF. Why don’t they wait and see if that will come so that they can confront me that you said this and now you have crossed (over). So, they should be worried if I carried any assets from UPND which I must account for, what have I carried?” she asked.
Mrs Mwanawasa says there is more to life than politics;
“There are still principled people in this country. I have said I am not doing politics, not any time soon. People should not assume, they should wait and see if I will stick to my principles. They should not forget that being former first lady, must as it is not recognised in the Constitution, that’s an institution and it goes with certain responsibilities and duties. Under the Maureen Mwanawasa Community Initiative, we are doing something. We run schools, and I have never stopped since I left State House.”
Her husband, Mr Mwanawasa is regarded as one of the best President Zambia has ever had. He came to power in a disputed poll and being viewed as one imposed by then President Frederick Chiluba in 2002.
To the contrary, President Mwanawasa was a man of his own who ruled the country using the law and waged a fight against corruption which saw his predecessor caught up and brought before the law to account for alleged theft of million of dollars from the Treasury.
President Mwanawasa managed to revamp the economy that the local currency appreciated trading K3 against the US dollar a very unprecedented situation. By the time he died in 2008 he had won the hearts of the Zambian people that todate he remain being cherished by many.