Zambia-opposition: Zambia's main opposition searches for a new leader after Kaunda

Agence France-Presse - May 8, 2000

LUSAKA, May 8 (AFP) - Zambia's main opposition United National Independence Party (UNIP) was to begin a special four-day congress here Monday during which a new leader is to be elected to replace the party's founding president Kenneth Kaunda.

Eight candidates are in contention to succeed Kaunda, who retired from active politics in March to concentrate on his new role as a peacemaker on the African continent and on campaigning against HIV/AIDS.

Among those vying for the top post are former Zambian prime minister and army commander in the Kaunda government, General Malimba Masheke; former central bank governor Francis Nkhoma; former intelligence director Kamoyo Mwale, and former Lusaka mayor Simon Mwewa.

Kaunda said he would not back anyone, and it was up to the party to choose the right candidate.

"It is my hope and confidence that the party will find a suitable leadership among the many young men and women whom I have worked with at various levels in the past years," Kaunda told journalists recently.

The congress, which has attracted more than 3,000 delegates from across the country, is being held in the town of Ndola, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) from the capital Lusaka.

It will end on Thursday.

Among the controversies surrounding the congress is a decision by one of Kaunda's sons, Tilyenji, to contest the position of secretary general, the third highest post in the party.

Tilyenji, unlike Kaunda's other sons, has never been in politics before and is currently living in and doing business in Zimbabwe.

Some party officials have accused Kaunda of trying to create a dynasty in the party by bringing in his politically unknown son to take up a senior party post.

But Kaunda denies the accusation, saying it was his son's decision alone.

"His mother (Betty) was very upset but I advised her to let him do what he wanted," Kaunda told the state-owned Times of Zambia recently.

The secretary general position was to have been contested by another son, Major Wezi, but he was assassinated in November last year.

UNIP was the ruling party in Zambia for 27 years before it lost the historic multiparty elections in 1991 to the Movement of Multiparty Democracy (MMD).

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