Kaunda in Command

In the long and colorful history of railroading, few tracks have been laid any faster than those of the Tanzam Railway, which is currently moving southwestward from the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam to the copper belt of Zambia at the extraordinary rate of three miles a day. The 1,162-mile line, financed with the help of a $402 million interest-free loan from China, is being built by 15,000 Chinese, laboring alongside 35,000 Zambians and Tanzanians. The hardest part of the job -- 21 tunnels, 200 bridges and some 1,000 culverts in Tanzania -- has already been completed. The entire line is due to be finished late next year -- more than 18 months ahead of schedule.

The railroad will strengthen Tanzania's economy by opening up the southern part of the country. It will have an even more dramatic effect on landlocked Zambia, which is the world's largest exporter of copper (an estimated 750,000 tons this year). Prosperous though it is, however, Zambia has been uncomfortably dependent on the white states around it -- Rhodesia and the Portuguese territories of Angola and Mozambique -- since its independence in 1964.

Early this year, Rhodesia closed its borders with Zambia on the ground that Zambians had been aiding black guerrillas within Rhodesia. The government of Prime Minister Ian Smith specifically exempted Zambian copper from the blockade. Zambia's President Kenneth Kaunda, 49, decided, however, to stand on principle and refused to export his country's copper via Rhodesia. A month later, when the Rhodesians lifted their blockade, Kaunda imposed one of his own. He has refrained ever since from importing or exporting any goods through the rebel British colony.

Instead, he has relied on existing rail lines that pass through Portuguese territory and on the highway northeast to Tanzania. The blockade is forcing Zambia to pay an extra $150 million in import-export costs, and it has led to a few shortages. "Luxury living has been given its marching orders," says Kaunda.

But the country has fared surprisingly well -- largely because the price of copper has almost doubled since January.

Zambia's credit is so good these days, in fact, that it borrowed $150 million in Eurodollars last month. It then proceeded to pay out $226 million to retire the long-term bonds it had issued in 1969 when Kaunda took over 51% of the country's leading mining companies.

The government subsequently said it would scrap the lucrative management contracts that had been worth $40 million a year to the leading copper companies, Anglo-American of South Africa and American Metal Climax.

Extra Clout. Kaunda's action has strengthened his position at home as the man who took the mines out of the hands of foreigners. Not that he really needed the extra clout. Earlier this year, Kaunda pushed through a new constitution that turned the country into a one-party state -- the one party being his own United National Independence Party.

Consequently, in the elections to be held later this year, he will need only a simple "yes" majority vote to be elected to a third five-year term.

In the years ahead, Kaunda will face another kind of internal challenge: finding ways of transferring power to the younger, better educated men now entering Zambian politics. They openly resent the old-guard politicians for their corruption, incompetence and perks of power, which the younger men refer to as the "three Ms" -- mansions, Mercedes-Benzes and mistresses. But for the moment, Kaunda is indisputably the national hero, and his re-election is assured. His most impressive triumph will presumably come late next year -- perhaps on Oct. 24, the tenth anniversary of his country's independence -- when he stands at the throttle of the first train to rumble into the Zambian copper belt from the Tanzanian coast.

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