Background
Alexander Zulu was born on February 3, 1924, at Chipata in the Eastern Province.
Alexander Zulu was born on February 3, 1924, at Chipata in the Eastern Province.
Educated at Mufutu Primary School and Munali Secondary School.
After joining the government service he worked as a water development assistant from 1950 to 1953. He left to become an accountant-bookkeeper of the Kabwe Cooperative Marketing Union. Before taking up politics fulltime in 1962 he had made his way up to be the first African manager of a big cooperative and introduced many new ideas into co-operative marketing.
As a nationalist stalwart he was arrested along with Kaunda, Kapwepwe and others in March, 1959. He joined the United National Independence Party on his release and carried on his political work while continuing in his commercial job. He entered government in 1963 as a parliamentary secretary. In 1964 he became Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of Transport and Works.
In January 1965 his experience in the cooperative movement resulted in his appointment as Minister of Mines and Cooperatives. In August 1967 he was transferred to be Minister of Home Affairs, staying there until his move to Defence in January 1970. He set out a code of conduct for soldiers in July 1972 requiring them to be polite, not to swear, to pay for anything obtained from the public, not to damage crops and not to take liberties with people’s daughters. He had a key role in the conciliation moves between the two Rhodesian nationalist movements, ZANU and ZAPU.
Unlike many presidents, Kaunda has not intervened in defence matters, entrusting them entirely to Zulu as a close friend. His authority extends over security and the surveillance of activities of Rhodesian liberation movements inside Zambia. One of his main internal achievements has been the formulation of a code of conduct for soldiers paving the way for better relations between the public and the army.
Pioneer of the cooperative movement in Zambia, who is established in a position of political importance as one of the top four ministers in the government. It was his influence and mediation which brought President Kaunda back from the brink of resignation at the government crisis on February 4, 1968.
