Former Zambian president Frederick Chiluba, who is undergoing medical treatment in South Africa, is planning to sue a Zambian newspaper for alleging that he is HIV-positive, his spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The privately-owned newspaper The Post said in an editorial that medical tests stating that Zambia’s second president was HIV negative were fake.
”We have been told that medical tests have shown him to be HIV-negative and so on … we know this is not true. This is just a reckless attempt to mislead the Zambian people,” read the comment on Sunday.
Chiluba has asked his doctors in South Africa to distribute his test results to the Zambian media in order to show that he was not carrying HIV/Aids.
”He has a serious heart condition. He also took an HIV test that showed that he was negative. This is why he intends to sue the newspaper for libel,” said spokesperson Emmanuel Mwamba.
About 920 000 Zambians are living with HIV or Aids, or one in six adults, according to the UNAids, and the pandemic has left 600 000 children orphaned, most of whom live on the streets.
Chiluba (62) arrived in Johannesburg late last month after a court in Lusaka granted the former leader permission to travel abroad to seek medical attention even though he is on trial in his home country for corruption.
Zambia’s second president since independence, Chiluba is accused of stealing about $500 000 in state funds when he was in power for 10 years until 2001. – Sapa-AFP