Kaunda ruled Zambia from 1964 to 1991. He died in a hospital in Lusaka, where he was being treated for pneumonia.

Kambarage, the son of Zambia’s founding president and liberation hero Kenneth Kaunda, said on Thursday that he died of pneumonia in a military hospital in Lusaka, where he received treatment. He is 97 years old.

Kaunda ruled Zambia from 1964, when the southern African country won independence from Britain, until 1991, and later became one of Africa’s most determined activists in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

“I am sad to inform (members) that we have lost Muze. Let us pray for him,” Kambarage said on the late president’s Facebook page.

The former president was unwell and was taken to the Maina Soko Medical Center in Lusaka earlier this week.

Although Zambia’s copper-based economy has performed poorly under his long-term management, Kaunda will be remembered by more people for his role as an anti-colonial fighter, fighting against the white minority ruled South Africa.

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