Frederick Chiluba
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Frederick Jacob Titus Chiluba (born April 30, 1943) was the second President of Zambia (1991 - 2002).
He was born to Jacob Titus Chiluba Nkonde and Diana Kaimba and grew up in Ndola, where he went to Kawambwa Secondary School. He later completed his General Education Certificate via correspondence and studied economics in both the United States and former Communist countries. He worked as personnel clerk before becoming an accounts assistant at Atlas Copco in Ndola where he joined the National Union of Building, Engineering and General Workers (NUBEGW) rising through the ranks to the post of chairman of the union.
He went on to win the chairmanship of the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). Chiluba and several leaders in ZCTU were detained in 1981 by then President Kenneth Kaunda for calling a wildcat strike that paralyzed most of the Zambian economy. The union leaders were released after judge ruled their detention as unconstitutional. In 1987, he successfully withstood challenge to his chairmanship of NUBEGW that would have put his ZCTU position in jeopardy.
In 1990, he helped form the Movement for Multiparty Democracy, a party that, with Chiluba as its presidential candidate, went on to successfully challenge Kaunda's rule in the 1991 elections. Chiluba took office on November 2 of that year. He won re-election to a second five-year term in 1996 despite a lawsuit questioning his birthplace and hence his eligibility for the post.
Chiluba attempted to deport Kaunda on the grounds that he was a Malawian. He amended the constitution in order to stop citizens with foreign parentage from standing for the presidency, aimed at disqualifying Kaunda.
Some candidates in the 1996 presidential elections challenged his eligibility on these grounds, claiming that he or his real father was born in Zaire. There is, however, no doubt that he was raised in the Copperbelt of Zambia and this contributed to his taking up of unionism.
In late 2001, Chiluba divorced his wife Vera with whom he has nine children.
Despite his party's overwhelming majority in parliament, he failed to win support in his bid to amend the constitution allowing him to run for a third term. He stepped down at the end of his term on January 2, 2002, and was replaced by Levy Mwanawasa, his once time vice-president. Although Chiluba started out as a socialist, his policies have since turned capitalist, stressing free enterprise with reduced government interference.
Politically, Chiluba left a mixed legacy. He helped broker a peace agreement to end the war in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, but failed to stop the escalating crime and poverty in Zambia. He was elected chairman of the Organization of African Unity after he left the presidency. He has recently been a target of Mwanawasa's campaign against corruption: in February 2003, he was charged with stealing $40 million from public funds during his time in office.
| Preceded by: Kenneth Kaunda | President of Zambia 1991–2002 | Succeeded by: Levy Mwanawasa |