Zambia's airports renamed

September 28th, 2011

Zambia's new President Michael Sata has renamed the country's three main airports after liberation heroes, including the country's first president Kenneth Kaunda.

Capital city Lusaka's airport will now carry Kaunda's name, while the airport in Livingstone, near the world-famous Victoria Falls, will be named
after early nationalist leader Harry Nkumbula, Sata said, on only his fifth day in office.

The airport in the mining town of Ndola will be named after Simon Kapwepwe, the country's first vice president, he added.

Sata said the new names were meant as a gesture of reconciliation among Zambian political parties. Kaunda is regarded as the father of the nation, but fell out politically with Nkumbula and Kapwepwe.

"I said it earlier that we have to reconcile with the past," Sata told journalists. "This country is what it is because of the past."

Sata once served in Kaunda's government, but quit when the country introduced multi-party politics in 1991.

He formed his own party, the Patriotic Front, and won the presidential election last week, the second democratic transfer of power in Zambia
since independence from Britain in 1964.

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User Comments

Progress

Submitted by Reality on Sun, 10/02/2011 - 13:58.

Thank God we live in S.A. Although names also get changed here - we still 50 years ahead of countries like zambia and zimbabwe. Maybe they should put more effort into infrastructure.

What a waste of time and money

Submitted by The Goofster on Sun, 10/02/2011 - 10:21.

Why does it seem that every african president feels the urge to change the names of places, streets and/or towns when they come into power? Surely the money could be put to better use?

I honestly just don't get it.

Zambia

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 10/02/2011 - 00:23.

I have also spent much time in Zambia.
- Little crime, and what there is non-violent.
- Education is good. Job applicants can converse, read and write.
- People there do not expect handouts - Work for their pay willingly.
- Very friendly - non racist.
- Corruption is not the norm.
- Police are respected.

I THINK THE PRESIDENT IS ON

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 18:56.

I THINK THE PRESIDENT IS ON RIGHT TRACK,VIVA PRES SATA VIVA,LONG LIVE SATA LONG LIVE

Hope he consulted

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 18:05.

Hope he consulted extensively. We should not forget that Kaunda was not a complete saint. He also used the security machinery to eliminate some enemies. Some suffered i.e. Simon Kapwepwe. (See Kapwepwe diaries). We need to forgive. But I have never heard repentance from some quotas that are now being given high profile