HOW MWANAWASA PERSONALLY APPLIED FOR A 20×30 MEANWOOD PLOT
An excerpt from the book: Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, An Incentive For Posterity (2009), By Amos Malupenga, Pages 173 – 174.
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When Mwanawasa was Republican President, he and his wife
jointly applied to Meanwood Development Corporation for a small
piece of land in March, 2008. As this author’s archival research
and subsequent interview with Meanwood confirmed, Mwanawasa
personally completed the application form and had it delivered to
Meanwood offices, much to the surprise of Meanwood Chairman,
Robinson Zulu and his staff members.
It was as though such a personal effort of filling in application forms was beneath his status as President of Zambia.
Recalling this incident, Robinson Zulu testified as follows:
“I didn’t know President Mwanawasa that much before we received his
application. I thought I knew him and his wife before this experience. But
when I received the application form, duly completed by the President
and the First Lady, to an extent of attaching passport-size photos and even
certified photocopies of their national registration cards, I felt that this
was a man who was really misunderstood.
I found President Mwanawasa’s action unusual, particularly that he
was applying for a small piece of land for residential purposes in our
Kwamwena project in Chamba Valley. They applied for 600 square
metres. This is 20 × 30 metres.
I couldn’t believe that the whole President could apply for such a small residential plot, that he found time and sat down to complete the application forms. I thought as President, he could just ask his special assistants to phone and instruct me to give him some land, maybe a five-acre plot.
But I can say that Mwanawasa was misunderstood by some people
who felt that he was very arrogant, didn’t listen to people and was just
full of himself. Very few Zambians understood how humble Mwanawasa
really was. For Mwanawasa to simplify himself to me to such a level
demonstrates his humility and commitment to follow procedures.
As a result of that very positively shocking gesture by the President,
we decided to give him another piece of land – gratis – in a much better
location. We gave him a quarter acre or one-thousand square metres.
When he received our offer, the President wrote back to me on March 31,
2008, expressing gratitude for our gesture. Again, I couldn’t believe that
he could find time to thank a man as insignificant as I consider myself.
President Mwanawasa kept thanking us for every little thing we did for
him up to the time we got him title deeds. He even went to the extent of improving on the documents we gave him, from the legal point of view. This is how thorough Mwanawasa was.
He was able to read every page of the documents we sent him, edit them
and send them back with a covering letter to justify his amendments.
It is on that basis that I can justify that Mwanawasa was very humble
and very thorough. He also understood what it meant to be President.”
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