TOM MTINE DIES at 97 YEARS

NDOLA SAD NEWS, as TOM MTINE DIES at 97 YEARS

Alderman MTINE on Saturday, 11th February, 2023 celebrated his 97th Birthday at his residence in Northrise, Ndola.

Who is TOM MTINE?

TOM MTINE is one of Zambia’s earliest known MILLIONAIRES.

Mr. MTINE used to manage 53 local companies in the 1950s as CHAIRMAN of the LONRHO GROUP.

Mr. MTINE was also the FIRST CHAIRMAN of ZAMBIA AIRWAYS.

He was FIRST BLACK MAYOR of NDOLA around 1965-66 and the FIRST BLACK AFRICAN to run the FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION of ZAMBIA (FAZ) after independence.

He is an HONORARY MEMBER of the CONFEDERATION of AFRICAN FOOTBALL (CAF).

Mr. MTINE was awarded by FIFA during the global football governing body at the CENTENARY CELEBRATION in 2004 for his contribution to the GAME in Zambia.

What did Mr. MTINE say on his 96th Birthday?

Speaking when journalists from the Ndola Press Association visited him, Mr. MTINE cited PERCEVERANCE, SACRIFICE and HUMILITY as KEY to LONG LIFE.

“To do anything good you have to persevere.
And persevering is not a joke.
When you persevere you meet a lot of people and there you have to go forward,”
Mr. MTINE told journalists with a smile.

“In our language we say,
uzicepesa osati matukutuku ntawi zonse,”
he said.

“Look, life we have got to realise that we have got to look at ourselves. Stop this stop that. Stop drinking;
the door will open for you.
Now, having sacrificed a lot of things, you go forward,” Mr. MTINE said.

As a youth, Mr MTINE worked for the GOVERNMENT before moving into the private sector and later on rising to manage a group of companies.

After obtaining a Cambridge certificate, Mr MTINE learnt bookkeeping besides learning how to manage co-operative societies in Lusaka.

After managing cooperatives in Lusaka such as Chalimbana Teachers Training College, he got a transfer to Ndola at the start of the 1950s.

He worked in Ndola, Kitwe, Chingola, Luanshya and Mufulira.

After leaving the public sector, Mr. MTINE joined the NDOLA BAZAAR Limited where he was employed as a bookkeeper.

He later moved to another company and with his background of accounting and salesmanship which meant travelling a lot.

Mr. MTINE landed a job at Heinrich Syndicate as a public relations officer.

While at Heinrich Syndicate, Mr MTINE was among the staff that moved to LONRHO GROUP after its acquisition and as luck could be, at the new company that bought off Heinrich Syndicate, he earned himself an executive position.

He was first managing director at LONRHO and thereafter he became CHAIRMAN as he was in charge of many companies within the LONRHO GROUP.

In the past, Mr MTINE has been recalling the time he was special envoy of then President KENNETH KAUNDA to South Africa where he went to deliver a classified letter in a secret way for the release of incarcerated FREEDOM FIGHTER, NELSON MANDELA in the 1980s.

“It was not easy, it was a risk. I had to put that letter at the back of my head to pass through Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe was more frightening than South Africa.

The letter was folded, placed in the collar at the back of my shirt and it was to be handed to STATE SECURITY OFFiCERS in South Africa,” he told the Zambia Daily-mail in the 2016 interview.

Compiled by Radio Icengelo’s Valentine Mukuka,
with added information from the, Zambia Daily-Mail Library,
and,
Ndola Press Association