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PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema has challenged young leaders to emulate first republican President Dr Kenneth Kaunda’s legacy in their quest to become good leaders.
President Hichilema said that Dr Kaunda’s legacy was a lesson to those that aspire to lead that one had to be prepared to suffer for what they believed in if they were to be good leaders.
He said that the suffering for those who aspire to take up leadership may not be physical in nature but could as well be in form of mental torture from people who may not believe in their cause or ideas.
President Hichilema in a speech read by Lands Minister Elijah Muchima during the public dialogue to commemorate the Kenneth Kaunda Day urged young people to remain relentless in their quest to achieve their dreams and goals.
The head of State said Dr Kaunda joined politics at a young age and all odds were stuck against him because he worked with colonial masters who had more resources and influence than him and in the process suffered persecution at the hands of the colonisers.
“But through all these difficulties Dr Kaunda was relentless and stayed focused until he led his fellow liberation fighters to seeing that Zambia gained its independence,” President Hichilema said. President Hichilema said President Kaunda was a friend of many liberation movements in Africa and internationally and was a strong believer that for anything great to be achieved with the liberation movement, collaboration and partnership needed to be formed.
And Kenneth Kaunda Legacy Foundation board chairperson Bernadette Deka said the organisation would work to train and empower the next generation of leaders that would aspire to leadership and be able to carry the virtues of Dr Kenneth Kaunda.
She said the leadership academy would be the foundations hub for training, empowering, encouraging and supporting young people who aspire for leadership to take up active roles in decision making positions in governance, politics, business and other forms of civic leadership.
Ms Deka said the foundations thermatic area of focus on education would aim to support the most vulnerable in society with education support grants which would help them acquire tertiary education either at university, college or vocational training levels.
She said Dr Kaunda’s passion for education hailed from a background of having a parent who was a teacher and later himself became one.
“Thus during his time as president of the Republic of Zambia, he made a lot of investments in education such as the establishment of the University of Zambia in 1965 and later established bursaries committee in 1973 to support the vulnerable in attaining tertiary education,” Ms Deka said.
Ms Deka said her foundation was also working to end HIV by working with various stakeholders and partners.
“Our thermatic area of focus on health and social wellbeing aims to support the fight to end HIV/AIDS,” she said.
Ms Deka said the Foundation was also working using humanitarian, charity and human rights tools to empower the most vulnerable communities and people to flourish and live happily.
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