SADC’s first female finance minister dies

Zambian opposition party Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) leader, Edith Nawakwi, has died.

Nawakwi Zambia’s and Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s first female finance minister died in South Africa where she was undergoing cancer treatment.

Nawakwi was a pioneering leader whose career spanned public service, politics, and economic reforms.

Born on June 24, 1959, in Mwenzo, Nakonde District, Northern Province, Nawakwi was a highly accomplished economist.

Nawakwi entered the political field in 1990 as a founding member of the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD), she quickly rose to become a National Executive Committee Chairperson and Member of Parliament for Nakonde (1990–2001).

She went on to represent Munali Constituency from 2001 to 2006.

Throughout her career, she held several ministerial portfolios, breaking numerous gender barriers.

She served as Deputy Minister and later Minister of Energy and Water Development (1992–1996), Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries (1996), and became the first woman in Zambia and the SADC region to be appointed Minister of Finance in 1997.

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