Fare Thee Well Ambassador Augusto
By Dickson Jere
I am saddened to hear of the death of Manuel Domingos Augusto, former Angola Ambassador to Zambia who later became Foreign Affairs Minister.
He served in Lusaka during the tense period of Angola vs Zambia diplomatic fallout between 1995 to 1999. Zambia and Angola were about to to war this period.
Augusto was a very sociable guy who loved the Lusaka life. But he also developed a good network of friends in the media. We, journalists, used to drink and dine at his house and he would give us ‘scoops’ on number of issues. He was a media guy.
So, in 1999, Lusaka was rocked with a number of bombs, which killed one guard at Angola Embassy. The two countries completely fallout and President Frederick Chiluba announced that Zambia was ready to defend herself. But the Post Newspaper reacted by saying Zambia was not capable to take on Angola and the war should be stopped!
And drama ensued. Later, 12 journalists working at The Post Newspaper, including myself, were arrested and charged with espionage. We were accused of spying for Angola!
During interrogation, I was quizzed about the close relationship I had with Ambassador Augusto.
Anyway, we were taken to Court but got acquitted! No evidence was ever presented to Court except that we were just journalists chasing stories. We were represented in that case by lawyers Levy Mwanawasa, SC and Sakwiba Sikota, SC.
We continued with our interactions qith Ambassador Augusto even after he left Zambia. When he visited as Minister, he always called the old team together for drink and catchup. He was a good guy who loved Zambia as his home. He loved Zambeef T Bone. He traveled with cooler box to Zambia for the T Bone when he was Minister.
RIP Ambassador Augusto.