Africa-Press – Zambia. Former President of Mozambique Armando Guebuza has described first Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda as a real freedom fighter who should be well mourned by Africans as a whole and the world at large.
And President Guebuza said Africans must not be satisfied with the values they don’t practice because there’s a difference between the valued and practiced values.
In an interview, the former Mozambican President said Dr Kaunda’s works spread from Zambia to the entire Southern African as his wish was to see freedom and peace in the region.
The former head of state has also explained that Dr Kaunda sacrificed his life and made sure that countries were liberated. “President Kaunda was supportive, he helped financially and materially to ensure that countries like Mozambique came out of the liberation struggle,” he said.
President Guebuza added that Dr Kaunda’s love for Africa cannot go without mentioning how African leaders learnt how to prioritize education and infrastructure development.
He has also disclosed that the people of Mozambique will never forget Dr Kaunda’s efforts in bringing together the Portuguese goverment and FRELIMO as “opposition” party then, putting to an end the liberation struggle.
“As African leaders, we learnt how to do right because of Dr Kaunda and this should be a challenge to all African leaders who are alive to do what is right always,” he said.
Asked on how Africa should mourn Dr Kaunda, President Guebuza said Africa should cry a bit, adding that Southern Africa wouldn’t have grown without his efforts.
“President Kaunda is a man that had self-esteem, very high. Because of that, let us cry a little but his works were so high and we must be proud of them and do our best to reach that level.
During the period of the liberation struggle, not only for Mozambique but for all of Africa … Dr Kaunda was courageous enough to say let us assist our brothers and sisters in other countries to get their freedom. Our independence is important and valuable not only to us but to all our people, our children, their children,” he said.
On the values of love for other human beings which Dr Kaunda cherished, President Guebuza said the values of love for another human being are problematic in Africa today because “there is difference between the values we value and the values we practice”. He said the main challenge for Africans is not to be satisfied with the values that we don’t practice.
“We have to move towards a situation where poverty, diseases, lack of education, malnutrition, etc, all those elements are [addressed]… what President Kaunda did was to show us the way, to tell us by example, that we should do this for the betterment of our people…,” President Guebuza said. President Guebuza served the people of Mozambique from 2005 to 2015.
