1964 Review

By David Punabantu & Edited by MAKANDAY

MARCH 1 1964

About 1,200 farm hands are to get their final pay in Mkushi farm block and many more are to lose jobs after the harvest, as farm employers claim “prohibitive” labour wage increases and heavy crop losses, has caused them to make cut backs. In Kitwe, 1,300 youths protest at being unemployed to United Trade Union Congress officials. The Council workers’ union is planning a strike if pay claims are rejected. In Solwezi, 13 UNIP men are jailed by Solwezi Magistrate Mr. H. Fisher ranging from two to six years for rioting, obstructing the road and assault. Kaunda holds his first monthly press conference. Mufulira Wanderers beat Kitwe United 3-2. Zoom, Chisenga and Kenny scored.

MARCH 2 1964

NORTHERN RHODESIA Government refuses to alter the newly awarded minimum farm workers’ wages. Banks in Choma ran out of money needed to pay farm workers their new wages. Choma farm owners lay off 20 percent of the work force and start selling off an unusually huge number of cattle. Local government workers who were dismissed to make way for Africans accept a compensation plan. Governor Sir. Evelyn Hone leaves for a four-day visit today for North Western Province. Government. refuses to enforce rent controls because it may retard development. NORTHERN RHODESIA small pox toll increases but Health Minister says the epidemic is under control.

MARCH 3 1964

Livingstone is angered at the Tourism Bureau being stationed in Lusaka due to Kaunda’s insistence and calls Government’s attitude “Bamba Zonke” (Someone who takes everything). Kaunda broadcasts to the nation that Government is to embark on 49 Northern Rhodesian projects worth £5 million with education getting the largest amount being £1 million. BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY profits register a slight drop. A two-year agricultural course starts in Monze Agricultural Training School. The training school is being rebuild in permanent materials and is to take 96 students instead of its current 60. Added to this, students must have Form two education instead of Standard six.

MARCH 4 1964

Chingola-Bancroft-Konkola branch of the NORTHERN RHODESIA Union of Teachers will strike, warns branch secretary Mr. Basil Kabwe in Ndola, unless discriminatory wages are scrapped by April 1st. Finance Minister Arthur Wina gives details on the

£5 million development plan. A NORTHERN RHODESIA Railway strike looms over “European Trouble”, in which Africans have been insulted and beaten in the locomotive shed by Europeans since 1961. Home Affairs Minister Mwansa Kapwepwe is to start screening  refugees  and is to adopt a “no” open house policy. BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY is to discuss mineral rights soon, says Finance Minister A. Wina. New Zambian bank notes are to be in next year.

MARCH 5 1964

Broken Hill NORTHERN RHODESIA rail workers start their strike from midnight. The strike started on February the 7th  when 1,500 African ticket-paid miners went on strike at the mine.

Parents plead to government to rescind its decision to stop the bursaries of NORTHERN RHODESIA students intending to enter Salisbury’s University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. A rift in the NORTHERN RHODESIA civil service is emerging between the long standing professional civil service and the “Colonial” officers of the provincial administration because the appointed permanent secretaries are former District and Provincial Commissioners. BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY paid £7 million to government in taxes.

MARCH 6 1964

Tuberculosis claimed 4,000 people in NORTHERN RHODESIA last year Health Minister S. Wina reveals. Mr Simon Zukas flies back to London. About 1,300 farm workers from Choma and 900 from an area between Kalomo and Livingstone are sacked, including an undisclosed number from Mazabuka. ANC leader Nkumbula talks of a merger with UNIP to bring an end to inter-party violence, much to the shock of ANC cadres. Railway stations all over NORTHERN RHODESIA are deserted due to a rail strike. Crime rises as unemployment soars on the Copperbelt. Chambeshi Mines has its first victims for the year, two African miners, Mr. G. Mwisa and Mr. Z. Mwambwe who were struck by a D-8 bulldozer.

MARCH 7 1964

Kitwe Mayor Mr. Cyril Wilkins lays the foundation stone for new civic council offices.

MARCH 8 1964

NORTHERN RHODESIA Railways strike is still on and it threatens food supplies and the mines. Peasant, African and European farmers must co-exist says Natural Resources Minister Mr. Sipalo and Lands Minister Mr. S. Kalulu, and former Peoples’ Democratic Congress (PDC) members Mr. Michello and Mr. Punabantu, but now members of the ANC, denounce Nkumbula over the figurehead post in the UNIP-ANC merger plan. They are labeled “trouble makers” by Nkumbula.  Nine year-old African boy John Mwanza is electrocuted  in Luanshya when he climbs an electricity pylon to get to a bird’s nest.

MARCH 9 1964

The 6,000 man strong railway strike is called off after 12 hours of talks. Railway men are to start work tomorrow. Five tons of 800,000 ballot papers are burnt today at Chilanga Cement’s furnaces. The Personnel Levy plan is in force and requires every person to pay £2 10s a year. Kaunda is not going to dismiss Nkumbula’s offer for a merger. Mr Godwin Mbikushita Lewanika aged 57, a storeowner and a veteran Barotse politician, who was also a former Federal MP repeats his withdrawal from politics and asks to be “left alone”. Commerce Minister Mr. A. Zulu starts a “Buy Home Products” appeal.

MARCH 10 1964

NORTHERN RHODESIA’s first Parliament opens today amid cheers from 15,000 UNIP and ANC cadres. Sir Evelyn Hone reads his speech from the “Throne” in the Legislative Assembly. Congolese Prime Minister Mr. Cyille Adoula attends the ceremony. Trains are back on the move at noon. Wage negotiation between the National Union of Local Authorities and the Copperbelt local authorities’ employers ends in deadlock. Broken Hill miners are on strike. Mobile police control 400 Africans at ANC member J. Simukonda’s trial in Mufulira. He is charged with inciting violence, having said: “…if you meet any UNIP supporter, beat him!”

MARCH 11 1964

Speaking in Parliament, Sir Evelyn Hone says a NORTHERN RHODESIA constitutional conference will be held in London in May. He also said the airport will be improved so that it can accommodate the VC-10 and a Bank of Northern Rhodesia will be established later this year. Health Minister S. Wina is in Ireland to recruit nurses and doctors. John Okello, the Field Marshal of Zanzibar says in Dar-es-Salaam that about 12,000 people were killed in the revolution to remove the Arab dominated government and oust the Sultan of Zanzibar. Barotseland gets a new doctor, Dr. J. Christe from the United States. The doctor will work in Lukulu.

MARCH 12 1964

Twelve new border posts are to be opened. More attention will be paid to the Congo border. Irish Aid is coming for NORTHERN RHODESIA health services say’s Health Minister S. Wina in London, after a two-day visit to Ireland. ANC controlled Mufulira council picks a European Councilor, Eustace Gallias, as the new Mayor. Roan Selection Trust’s (RST) Mufulira Mine Club votes to allow Africans in after changing racial clauses in their constitution. Government will not grant bursaries for medical school in Southern Rhodesia. Sir Evelyn Hone will be in Mongu next week for the Kuomboka ceremony. Radio and television license charges are  announced as £1  and £15  a  year respectively.

MARCH 13 1964

A big breakthrough occurs at Nchanga’s “hush-hush” refinery plant. It promises to revolutionize the copper industry throughout the world and could lead to the recovery of thousands of tons of copper from slag heaps and perhaps the reopening of mines like Bwana Mkubwa, Kansanshi and Mtuga. Government’s control of all trade unions is urged in the Zambian Parliament. Nkumbula is criticized by Congo Prime Minister Adoula, who describes Nkumbula as being a valet of Mr. Tshombe. Copper groups boost copper prices to £244 per long ton to stabilize prices from £236 per long ton. Archbishop of Lusaka, the Most Reverend Adam Kozlowiecki, meets Kaunda.

MARCH 15 1964

NORTHERN RHODESIA ZAPU members are to liberate SR together with the Africans held at Wha Wha concentration camp in Southern Rhodesia from the “minority Field Government.” Fog hits Ndola at night reducing visibility to a few yards. NORTHERN RHODESIA maize is enough for everyone, weather permitting, says the Agriculture Ministry. It  estimates that 2.3 million bags will be sold. Health Minister S. Wina wants 100 Irish nurses to fill vacant posts, he  says during a visit to Dublin. Nurses are offered £1,000 a year and medical officer’s £3,000 a year plus allowances on three year contracts. Two UNIP men are held in a disused fridge for two days, by four ANC supporters, who are to be lashed with cane for the abduction.

MARCH 16 1964

About 1,100 NORTHERN RHODESIA school places are to stay empty this year in formally all-White fee-paying schools. Three ZAPU men appear in court charged with having 340 sticks of explosives and 60 detonators in their car just south of Kapiri Mposhi. Their leader, Simon Moyo, gets two  years. Poor rainfal in Eastern Province has affected groundnut production that brought export earnings of about £1 million last year. Eastern Province nuts are oil-rich and are highly sought as good confectionary nuts. In Kitwe, UNIP youth constituency chairman Mr. Fenwick Chifunda warns Kitwe bar owners not to allow into their bars,  mothers with children on their backs. “Lock up your cars!” police warn car owners.

MARCH 17 1964

NORTHERN RHODESIA farmers are assured by government that maize prices will not fall below the minimum price of 37s 6d. In Manchester, an order for 500,000 yards of cotton material with designs featuring Dr. Kaunda’s portrait, UNIP badges and slogans, are expected to be completed in May. Half the Manchester consignment is already heading for Zambia. In his maiden speech to Parliament, Local Government Minister N. Mundia says the National Progressive Party (NPP) and the ANC should be barred from the scheduled London independence talks in May and there is no need for independence elections as UNIP has the mandate from the people. Kaunda however says the opposition will attend the talks and there will be elections.

MARCH 18 1964

NPP leader J. Roberts suggests to government in Parliament a scheme in which European farmers are willing to train 1,500 Africans on their farms if government is willing to pay for the “courses”. A new Blind Training Centre is opened in Kawambwa, Luapula Province with 12 students. On Foreign Student’s Day, while on diplomatic training in Washington, Miss Gwendolyn Konie meets US Attorney General Robert Kennedy. ANC Deputy national secretary Mr. Cuthbert Sinyangwe quits the ANC after 12 years and says he is “tired of politics”. In Kitwe, 800 miners quit and join the new United Mineworkers’ Union.

MARCH 19 1964

Central Africa’s most colourful festival “the Kuomboka” ceremony is held in Mongu with the Litunga Sir. Mwanawina Lewanika III, who is also the Lozi King. Finance Minister says NORTHERN RHODESIA had £60,200,000 worth of public debt before the dissolution of the Federation and her share of the Federal debt was £44,500,000. But borrowings for Kariba and Rhodesia Railways brought it to £74,500,000. The UN blueprint to Zambia’s development costs £450 million, which is to be spent from 1965 to 1970, and should ensure NORTHERN RHODESIA’s prosperity. The UN master plan expects GDP to rise from £250 million in 1965 to £340 million by 1970, while creating 160,000 jobs in the same period.

MARCH 20 1964

ANC member Simukonda is jailed for nine months. Kaunda tells Parliament that government will not remove the political opposition, but a one-party-system may be set up if the people wished it. The NPP backs government on royalties’ settlement deal with BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY. Health Minister S. Wina’s recruitment drives are a success and he also gets 10 places for students to study medicine in Ireland. Labour and Mines Minister Mr. J. Chimba defends the minimum pay for farm workers after touring farms and tells of “Horrible Conditions” on farms as some farm workers had to live in tin houses while their masters bought planes-“its two different worlds” he comments.

March 22 1964

In Chifubu. Northern Rhodesia’s largest singles suburb, Kaunda opens a new  £11,000  Welfare Hall for which the Chifubu has raised £3,870. The Welfare Hall Recreation Board was given to Ndola Municipal Council. In Kitwe, Kaunda also opens the YWCA £12,000 training center at Mindolo Ecumenical Centre saying the initials YWCA now have a different meaning “Youths Want a Chance to Advance”. Government is prepared to accept the development proposal from the UN, admits Kaunda. City of Lusaka loses 0-1 against Ndola United, beaten in a friendly return match 8-2 by Ndola United at Dag Hammarskjoeld Stadium.

MARCH 23 1964

A two-man delegation from the United Arab Republic meets Kaunda at night. Lusaka City Council wants a loan sanctioned to pay professional fees for its proposed £166,500 water softening and treatment plant. Home Affairs Minister Kapwepwe says government has no plans to nationalise Northern Rhodesia television. Broken Hill Mine’s 1,500 miners end their strike and an Anglo American Corporation (AAC) spokesman says the conglomerate has lost between £350,000 and £400,000 in revenue as a result of the strike.

MARCH 24 1964

The death of sky jumper Mrs. Petterson is blamed on club indiscipline. Of the 66 cases reported of smallpox in NORTHERN RHODESIA, 12 have resulted in death, reports the Health Ministry. Lusaka has three cases and three deaths, Broken Hill has two cases; Kasama has 42 cases and eight deaths, Isoka has six cases, Abercorn has eight cases, Chinsali has four cases and one death, and Livingstone has one case. The Education Ministry rejects monthly fees payment for night school, and demands one lump sum. The NORTHERN RHODESIA Traders’ Association protest to Kitwe Council over the erection of a European shop along the Kitwe-Chingola road, near the African suburb as it may steal customers.

MARCH 25 1964

Police cancel the ANC meeting to be held in Fort Jameson on Friday. The Home Affairs Minister reveals an administrative hitch spelt death for 36-year-old ANC top man McDonald Lushinga, who two week ago, perished at the hands of an African mob. All the houses in the African townships of Matero and Chilenje are to get electricity if approved by the Health, Housing and Welfare Committee meeting tomorrow. The Fort Jameson Police Club held an evening of games to help raise money for a small boy, Jordan Mlauzi, who is a burns victim. The club manages to raise £40 and the boy will be sent to mission school.

MARCH 26 1964

Kapwepwe tries out a small Hugh’s helicopter selling at £10,000. Peter John Mukanzo, 38 year-old Ndola town councillor, who is also a clerk, is sentenced to nine months with hard labour, suspended three month for theft of £55 from his employer. A 31-minute electrical power failure hits  Lusaka  and  Southern Rhodesia  as  Kariba  Dam’s  electrical  power supply faces problems. Ndola escapes the power blackout. The African Mine Workers’ Union loses another 300 members to the United Mine Workers’ Union led by Mr. D. Mwiinga. High demand for copper occurs as the price exceeds its previous six-year peak.

MARCH 29 1964

Lusaka has a new Medical Superintendent, British born Dr. R. N. Weir who has been working in Nyasaland for the past ten years. About 200 striking Africans of the Pan African Construction Company want their foreman removed for ill-treating the workers and allegedly calling them “baboons” and “Kaffirs”. Mr. Michael Sata, the general secretary of the National Union of Engineering Construction and General Workers says, “Unless the foreman is dismissed, or sent to another company, the union will not compromise with the company”. BSAC holds talks on Northern Rhodesia and its mineral rights.

MARCH 30 1964?

The Northern Rhodesia government is expected to offer BSAC £30-£40 million for royalties, Kaunda reveals at his monthly press briefing. UNIP is to stop traders overcharging on Northern Rhodesia’s  “Kwacha” cloth, bearing the portrait of Dr. Kaunda and UNIP slogans. The recommended retail price is 5s 6s but is instead selling at 8s 6d a yard, especially on the Copperbelt. The UN says a £1.8 million scheme to open up the Zambezi River to heavy navigation in Barotseland and into Angola is being considered by government. Rhodesia Railways is to get its first African train drivers by end of the year. Liverpool beat Spurs 3-1.

MARCH 31 1964

Dwindling UK copper stocks gives a fresh boost as wire bars go for £296 15s. RST major shareholders say Northern Rhodesia has a promising future.  Northern Rhodesia part-time Territorial  Force recruitment drives are short of 436 recruits, although their ranks are at 843 men. Nkumbula sacks ex-PDC men Mr. Job Michello, Mr Milimo-Punabantu and Mr. D. Simoloka saying, “I am tired of the press and radio listening to those three.” Two new puisne judges are appointed being Mr. N. J. G. Ramsay and Mr. F. J. Whelan. An unknown man’s body is found in Chingola near Nchanga Mine, and is believed to have been electrocuted.

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