Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s founding president and liberation hero, has died, aged 97, at a military hospital in Lusaka where he was being treated for pneumonia, his son, Kambarage, said on Wednesday.
A much-beloved leader for his willingness to step down after losing an election, nationalising the assets of DeBeers and Oppenheimer, and facing down apartheid South Africa.
Kaunda was admitted two days earlier suffereing from pneumonia, at a time when Covid-19 rates have been accelerating in Zambia in recent weeks.
“I am sad to inform (members) we have lost Mzee. Let’s pray for him,” Kaunda’s son Kambarage said on the Facebook page of late president.
Legacy
Kaunda ruled Zambia from its independence from Britain in 1964 to 1991, and was one of the last of his generation who fought against colonialism after the end of the Second World War.
While he is remembered fondly by a majority of the population, much of this longstanding admiration comes from his decision to concede after having lost a multi-party election.
Zambia, and Kaunda in particular, never won the kudos they deserved for backing the liberation movements in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Kaunda also had unique diplomatic gifts. While a fierce opponent of Margaret Thatcher over her sanctions on apartheid South Africa, he still managed to invite her husband Denis Thatcher to play a round of golf.
Also in contrast to Thatcher was his nationalisation of the mining industry, englobing the assets of Oppenheimer and De Beers. Copper assets were gathered under the Zambia Industrial and Mining Corporation. It had been the largest privately-owned industrial operation in Sub Saharan Africa at the time.
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