CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Fred Chela, Zambia, April 1999
THEME = PERSONALITIES
Dr Kenneth David Kaunda, Zambia's first president and founding
father of the nation,
has had a varied political career, spanning more than 50 years
On 31 March 1999, Ndola High Court Judge Chalendo Sakala, declared Dr Kaunda a stateless person. The declaration stems from Dr Kaunda's apparent failure to renounce his Malawian nationality, although he became Zambia's first president on Independence Day, 24 October 1964.
Dr Kaunda was born on 28 April 1924 at Lubwa Mission in northern Zambia, to David and Helen Kaunda (both Malawians) who had come to Zambia as devout Church of Scotland missionaries at the turn of this century. He was brought up by his mother after the demise of his missionary deacon father, David. She had him educated to Standard Six level, and he graduated as a teacher at Lubwa Mission where his father had been a missionary.
Kaunda's first assignment as a teacher, was at Mufulira mining town where his political potential became evident. He came into the political limelight at the same time as such personalities as the late Mbikusita Lewanika, Loton Yamba, Francis Chembe, Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula and Robinson Nabulyato, retired speaker of Zambia's National Assembly.
Kaunda became secretary-general of the African National Congress (ANC) in the early 1950s, As a radical, he seriously differed with ANC president Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula and formed the splinter Zambia African National Congress (ZANC) in 1959. Dr Kaunda then formed the United National Independence Party (UNIP) with Mainza Chona and several other radicals such as Simon Kapwepwe, Nalumino Mundia. The intention was to accelerate independence for Northern Rhodesia, (as Zambia was then called). From 1953 to 1963, Zambia was federated with Rhodesia and Malawi.
In the elections before Independence in 1964, Kaunda's UNIP won 55 of the 65 seats with the rest going to the ANC. Kaunda became Prime Minister. He went to Britain to draft Zambia's first basic Constitution in which it was stated that Dr Kenneth David Kaunda should be Zambia's first President, regardless of his nationality. This clause in the Constitution is the basis on which Dr Remmy Mushota and Peter Katyoka based their litigation against Kaunda for his belated renunciation of his parents' nationality.
At Independence, Zambia had inherited a healthy economy from the British government with copper prices booming. However, following Independence, a great deal of unaccountable money was spent on frivolous institutions such as the Credit Organisation of Zambia, as a reward to freedom fighters. This was just the start of bad economic management. Six years after Independence, Dr Kaunda embarked on the nationalisation of private industries. In 1968, major firms such as Lever Brothers, Old Mutual Insurance Company, various Building Societies and chain stores were appropriated at very little cost.
But the crunch came when Kaunda nationalised the entire mining industry, (now called the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines [ZCCM]. The economy began to decline in 1973 compounded by high oil prices which suddenly shot up, following the Middle East War between the Arabs and Israel. To strengthen his authority, Kaunda introduced the repressive one-party system in the same year. All dissident voices were crushed. The economy began to decline drastically as he persistently and repressively clamped down against any opposition.
Kaunda's major mistake was in the early 1980s when he abrogated the International Monetary Fund and World Bank prescription to restructurize the country's wobbling economy. The government had subsidised nearly everything from its copper earnings, but at the same time ignored the recapitalising of the mining industry despite huge profits. Finally, shortages of essential consumer goods appeared, sending signals of worst things to come. Eventually the Copperbelt eru-pted with food riots, looting and vandalism. Kaunda capitulated and instead, introduced food coupons which worsened the situation, as maize became scarce and the government coffers fell empty.
Civil servants were restless and the military dissatisfied. Two abortive coups were thwarted in 1989 and 1990, but Kaunda still preached at several of his public rallies that he would not preside over the multipartyism in Zambia. But as Communism crumbled in the East Europe, Dr Kaunda yielded to the winds of change and allowed the first multiparty elections to take place on 31 October 1991.
Kaunda was heavily defeated at the polls and went into temporary retirement. "I will help build democracy in Zambia," he said in his retirement address. He ceded his UNIP presidency to Kebby Musoktwane in 1992 but later reclaimed it in 1995, claiming Musokotwane had failed to manage the party. Then politics of friction and hatred ensued, with counter vengeful court suits. Dr Kaunda was accused by political rivals as being responsible for the Black Mamba bombings, the urban terrorist group that rocked Zambia with a series of bomb blasts, in which the state-owned Times of Zambia's printing office was torched. Then followed the "Zero Option" in which a coup was planned to overthrow the elected Movement for Multiparty Democracy. Kaunda was constitutionally barred from contesting the November 1996 presidential elections, on the pretext that his parents came from Malawi. Zambia's political scenario then turned violent.
On 28 October 1997, there was an attempted coup and Kaunda was jailed as a suspect. He was released five months later on the intervention of former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, and President Nelson Mandela of South Africa.
In December 1998, there were local (municipal) elections and Dr Kaunda saw this as a chance to rekindle his political fortunes. Before the elections, he said the results would be a referendum on his own political come-back. This backfired as his party won only about one-tenth of the 1,274 municipal seats nationwide.
So, whither Kaunda and Zambia?
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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