ENOCH Kavindele says he misses the Leadership Code that regulated the conduct of leaders in Dr Kenneth Kaunda’s administration.
Featuring on ZNBC television to celebrate Dr Kaunda’s 96th birthday on Tuesday, Kavindele who served under him in various portfolios, said if the Code was there leaders would not be competing for public tenders.
Kavindele was a member of the then ruling United National Independence Party (UNIP’s) central committee.
And prior to the 1991 multiparty elections, he challenged Dr Kaunda for the UNIP presidency before he quit after severe intimidation from other party stalwarts.
“To be honest with you, I miss the Leadership Code. I wish the leadership code would still be there. What that would have meant would be [that] leaders would not be in businesses competing with real business people, because as it is now if you were to tender for anything, for any work, amongst the people you would be competing with will be leaders who will sit on that committee adjudicating the fate of what you would have put in; so totally unfair,” he told moderator Franklin Tembo Jr. “For me I think the Leadership Code is one of the things that we miss. If you had a dream at night that you had taken government money, you know, that would be a terrible day. It was never thought of. Times have changed. And, of course, we have now started missing the motto: One Zambia, One Nation. For, we grew up under One Zambia, One Nation.”
Kavindele, who also served as republican vice-president in the Frederick Chiluba government, explained how he first met Dr Kaunda.
“I first met president Kaunda when I was 14 years old in Mufulira. And that is when I joined the UNIP youth league and grew up in that league till I became member of parliament for Chingola. And later on, I became member of central committee of UNIP. So, I’ve known him since I was 14, and I visit him all the time,” he said.
“I attended his 95th birthday, it was great because we were there from about midday up to 23:00 hours; so, we cherish him. KK was a great man; KK was a disciplinarian and he wanted everyone in UNIP to be like him. There was a lot of discipline. For instance, if a minister went to a bank and borrowed money and they failed to pay, to KK that was not acceptable; you were gone, indeed.”
Kavindele outlined moments he treasured about Dr Kaunda.
“And I treasure a lot of moments with KK. Secondly, he put me on very many committees of the central committee. I was on the youth committee, I was on the economic committee, I was on the agriculture committee, and there’s yet one other committee,” Kavindele said. “And because we treasured KK so much, we really all wanted to be like him in our interaction with the people. So, humility was one of those things that we copied from KK.”
And Kavindele explained his hatred for tribalism in politics which has become rampant currently.
He said national unity was one of the key traits he and others learnt from Dr Kaunda.
“It worked very well because you were, for instance, I’m from North-Western but I became a member of parliament in Chingola. There were some other people, Chililabombwe, from North Western Province they became members of parliament,” said Kavindele. “So, you could be member of parliament anywhere where you wanted to represent the people or where you grew up. So that was how we were brought up by KK – that all tribes were equal and we should not really look at where one came from, whatever. So, we worked together as under One Zambia, One Nation. We were one nation, one people. Tribalism? I never heard of [it] during my time in politics.”