Zambia - Head of Government

HE Mr Rupiah Bwezani Banda was voted into office in the October 2008 presidential by-election on the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy ticket.

He was appointed Vice-President in 2006 in the Levy Mwanawasa administration and took on the latter’s duties when President Mwanawasa suffered a stroke in June 2008. Mr Mwanawasa died in August 2008.

Mr Banda was elected to Parliament in 1978 as a United National Independence Party (UNIP) representative, and was re-elected in 1983.

He was previously Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1975 to 1976, and also served as Zambia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Ambassador to the USA and Egypt.

Before taking on a diplomatic career, Mr Banda was Chief Executive of the National Agriculture Marketing Board and the Rural Development Corporation.

He joined the UNIP in 1963.

Mr Banda has a Bachelor’s degree in Economic History from Lund University, Sweden.

He was born on 19 February 1937.