A 1969 Union College graduate who lost a tight presidential election in Zambia four years ago that brought allegations of corruption and ballot-stuffing, has died.
Anderson K. Mazoka, 63, a business executive who led an opposition party in the African nation, died on May 24 in a Johannesburg, South Africa medical clinic, according to published reports.
“He was a wonderful, wonderful person and a great student,” said Mazoka's former faculty advisor, Dick Shanebrook, a professor emeritus of mechanical engineering at Union, in a statement released by the school. “He was amazing. He always wanted to better himself.”
Shanebrook and his wife, Joan, had Mazoka over for dinner several times when he was a student, he noted. Mazoka built his senior thesis, a wind tunnel, in 10 weeks for less than $100. The college named it the “Mazoka Wind Tunnel” and used it for instructional purposes for more than 30 years, Shanebrook recalled.
Mazoka, who distinguished himself as a soccer player at Union and worked summers at General Electric, served as chief executive officer of Zambia Railways, one of that country's main rail systems. He later became general manager of Anglo-America Corp., a mining and general resources company.
“He was so loyal to Zambia, always talking about it,” Shanebrook said. “He wanted to do great things for his country, and he did.” By 2001, Mazoka, the founding president of Zambia's United Party for National Development, was in a tight race against leading party candidate Levy Mwanawasa. Mazoka declared himself the winner at one point in January 2002, only to lose the race when ballots were counted. His loss in Zambia's third-ever presidential election not only sparked street protests in the nation, but the allegations of corruption and vote-rigging.
“If he comes into power, you're going to be emptying and shutting off the siphon of money for a lot of corrupt people,” Vinson Lewis, a Schenectady native whose sister, Zenobia Lewis, was once married to Mazoka, told the Times Union.
Ulrich Schweitzer, a Westchester County man who served Mazoka's home state parent while he studied in America, told the paper at the time that he wasn't surprised to see the African native become such a high-profile leader.
“He was a very charismatic person,” Schweitzer said. “He attracts people. I would have assumed he would be successful.”