Kaunda was a rare human being and one of Africa's greatest sons: Thabo Mbeki Foundation

The Thabo Mbeki Foundation has described Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda as one of Africa's greatest sons and a rare human being, a humanist, a self-effacing African patriot and a principled defender of Africa’s liberation and development.

Kaunda died on Thursday. He was 97.

The foundation said South Africans owed a great deal to KK, as Kaunda was fondly known, and the people of Zambia for their immense contribution to this country’s transition to democracy in 1994.

“As one of the stalwarts of the group in Southern Africa characterised as the front-line states, he belongs to a generation of Africans who are the jewel in the African crown of liberation fighters,” the foundation said in a statement on Friday.

It reflected on how in 1963, the founding states of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) solemnly committed the organisation to the total liberation of the continent.

“Loyal to this commitment, President Kaunda and the governing party he led, the United National Independence Party (UNIP), positioned independent Zambia as the home of Southern Africa’s liberation movements.

“They sustained this reality even in the face of the high cost to the government and sister people of Zambia, imposed by the then colonial, apartheid and white minority regimes.”

The foundation described it as a feeling of great privilege that, in 2002, its patron, then president of the republic, Thabo Mbeki, bestowed on Kaunda the national order of the companions of OR Tambo in gold, for his exceptional contribution to the struggle against apartheid and for justice in the Southern African region.

“We are, however, consoled by the fact that over the course of his life and work, KK left us an invaluable legacy of exemplary leadership which should serve as a benchmark for all  our people,” it said.

Mbeki spent years in Zambia helping to build up the underground movement in Lusaka and later when he became political secretary in the office of the then president-general of the ANC Oliver Tambo. This was during the years of Kaunda's presidency.

The SA government has declared a period of mourning for 10 days with flags flying at half-mast at all flag stations.

TimesLIVE