Kaunda Invokes Emergency Powers Over Partv

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32077, 27 August 1969, Page 13

Kaunda Invokes Emergency Powers Over Partv

t / (N.Z.P.A. j LUSAKA, August 26. President Kenneth Kaunda, of Zambia, grappled with a major political crisis ’today after assuming emergency powers over the ruling party within hours of his i Vice-President’s resignation.

The first of two shock announcements by the Central African Country’s leading figures came yesterday when 47-year-old Mr Simon Kapwepwe told a press conference that he would step down as Vice-Presi-dent to avert possible bloodshed. He said that he would, leave both posts he held —in the ruling United National Independence Party (U.N.1.P.) and the Government—but would remain as a member of Parliament for the party. He is one of U.N.I.P.’s founders. A few hours later, President Kaunda told the nation in a dramatic broadcast that he had invoked emergency powers—granted him by

U.N.I.P. before independence in 1964—t0 abolish the party’s central committee and to take personal control. Mr Kapwepwe had belonged to the party's 15-mern-ber hierarchy, and some observers saw the two developments as indications of a power struggle within the ruling party. Dr Kaunda, the 45-year-old party leader who steered Zambia to independence from Britain, made no mention of Mr Kapwepwe in his speech.

He said that divisive forces were seeking to destroy the “very fabric of the party and the nation” and accused some party leaders of fostering sectional interests. Not As President

Dr Kaunda said that he would continue to head the party—but as Secretary-gen-eral and not its president—-

and elections for party offices would be held under a new constitution to be drawn up by a special commission. Party affairs would, in the meantime, be run by an interim executive committee, he said.

Until last night, the election of party officers —to have have been held at a U.N.I.P. congress in September, 1970 —was regarded by observers as the dominant theme of Zambia’s political life. Eleven of the central committee members were elected by votes and four by nomination. The party president and vice-president assumed similar roles in the Government

The old-style party elections, last held in 1967, determined the political-tribal balance of U.N.1.P., which was . also generally reflected in the Cabinet. President Kaunda underlined the significaiice of his new move by adding that in future Cabinet ministers need not necesarily be selected from among central committee members. The President made no reference to tribalism in his broadcast, though Mr Kapwepwe had implied at his

press conference this was one reason why he had resigned. He said that personal opposition to his role as Vice-

President had led to discrimination against his fellow Bemba tribesmen of northern Zambia. He explained: “If present activities continue, they will lead to trouble in our nation. I refuse to be part and parcel of any action which will lead to bloodshed. We cannot be champions of democracy if we cannot practise it at home.”

The major theme of Dr Kaunda’s broadcast to four million Zambians was the necessity to prevent political controversy hindering an advance to economic independence, to be achieved by new reforms which include a 51 per cent government stake in the country’s rich copper

mines, now under private foreign ownership. In spite of yesterday’s events, the nation’s memory links Dr Kaunda and Mr Kapwepwe as schoolboys who grew up together in the same area of Northern Province

and together led Zambia to independence. In his resignation statement, Mr Kapwepwe reaffirmed his unshaken loyalty to President Kaunda.