10 things you didn’t know about Rupiah Bwezani Banda
Former President Rupiah Banda talks to the press at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport yesterday shortly after arriving from South Africa after concluding his three months lecturing programme as the eighth President-in-Residence at Boston University in USA – Picture by Joseph Mwenda
Was a Zambian politician who was President of Zambia from 2008 to 2011.
Banda was born in the town of Miko, Gwanda, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe); his parents had come from Northern Rhodesia to find employment prior to his birth, and he was sponsored by a local Dutch Reformed Church preacher.
He became involved in politics when he joined the youth wing of the UNIP in 1960.
He was the UNIP’s representative in Northern Europe in the early 1960s.
In 1965 he was appointed as Zambia’s Ambassador to Egypt (the United Arab Republic).
Banda became Ambassador to the United States on 7 April 1967.
He married his first wife, Hope Mwansa Makulu, in 1966 and the couple had three sons together.
Banda was elected as a Member of Parliament for Munali Constituency in 1978 and lost the seat to Mr Simeon Kampata in 1983.
After Mwanawasa suffered a stroke while attending an African Union summit in Egypt on 29 June 2008, Banda became acting President
As President, Rupiah Banda was focused on economic development, traveling abroad to promote Zambian trade to other world leaders.