SADC mourns death of Kenneth Kaunda
Flags at the SADC headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana, will fly at half-mast for seven days in memory of Kaunda.
RUSTENBURG, June 24 (ANA)- The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is mourning the death of former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda and two other African leaders.
Flags at the SADC headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana, will fly at half-mast for seven days in memory of Kaunda.
In a statement following its extraordinary summit in Maputo, Mozambique on Wednesday, the SADC said it had learnt of the passing of Zambia’s founding president with deep sorrow.
“Dr Kaunda was a visionary who embodied the true values of freedom, non-racialism, democracy and the regional integration of southern Africa.
“Through his philosophy of humanism, which espoused people-centredness in all spheres of human endeavour. Dr Kaunda worked tirelessly at freeing the peoples of the continent from the yokes of colonialism, neo-colonialism and apartheid – and in uplifting their livelihoods, dignity and self-worth,” read the statement.
The regional body praised Kaunda for braving the predations of the white minority in Rhodesia and the apartheid regime in South Africa by hosting the liberation movements, including the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo), the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) Patriotic Front and the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu), the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), and the African National Congress (ANC), that would eventually bring independence to Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia and majority rule in South Africa.
The founding father of Zambian liberation died aged 97 at Maina Soko Medical Centre in the capital Lusaka on June 17. He will be buried on July 7.
Kaunda ruled Zambia from 1964 to 1991. He was the last surviving founding father of the SADC and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the forerunner of the African Union (AU).
The SADC also conveyed its condolences to Tanzania following the death of former president John Pombe Joseph Magufuli on March 17, as well as to the Kingdom of Eswatini on the death of prime minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini on December 13, 2020.
Dlamini died at a hospital in South Africa after testing positive for Covid-19.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher