Thousands Turn up to Mourn MHT Chairperson

MHT Board & Management from left: Mr Chibambula, Mr Humphrey Lombe (Consultant), Mr Thomas Nitini (Consultant), Managing Director Mr Silas Mungala and Mr Xu Ying, GM Rainbow Water.

THE Chairperson of MHT Mr Gorge Cornhill who died on Monday, October, 11, 2010, was put to rest on Friday October, 15, 2010 at the family farm in Chisekesi a rural outpost located 169 kilometres south of the Zambian capital Lusaka.

Mr Cornhill who led an illustrious life as farmer and businessman, was a man of the people, and as stated in his address to the mourners - First MHT Vice -Chairperson, Mr Gilbert Chibambula said that ‘the name George Cornhill was synonymous with Monze and Monze was synonymous with George Cornhill.’

MHT Vice Chairperson Mr Chibambula addressing mourners

Thousands of people turned up to bid farewell and traffic came to a standstill as the hearse that brought the body from the family home where it lay in state meandered its way leading a convoy over one kilometre long, to the Roman Catholic Church for a requiem mass. The church is sited a few metres away from the main road leading to Lusaka and Livingstone in the opposite direction. Traffic on the highway was halted briefly as State Police controlled affairs.

Important people from the present government and previous administrations including serving ministers and top civil servants, business executives and prominent commercial farmers including leaders of opposition main political parties, traditional leaders and ordinary people from all walks of life came.

Parliamentary Chief Mr Mwaanga and Southern Province Minister Mr Elijah Muchima

And Finance and National Planning Minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane, who represented the Republican President, called on historians and the media to document stories about freedom fighters who are not known by the general public.



Dr Musokotwane

And a documentary prepared by an eminent citizen Mr Mark Chona who served as a top aid to the First President Dr Kenneth Kaunda links Mr Cornhill to the liberation struggle. Mr Chona writes that Mr Cornhill met Dr Kaunda with whom he travelled to several places in order to liberate Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) from British colonialism.



Mr Munkombwe

Mr Daniel Munkombwe, who was the first MHT Chairperson at inauguration in 2007 and from whom Mr Cornhill took up the mantle from, described the deceased to whom he was also related, as a generous man and one who could not be easily pushed around. Mr Munkombwe ceased office when he took up a political appointment in 2008. He thanked My Home Town for contributing a coffin worth a lot of money.

Mr Cornhill's burial ended with the sons firing blanks using two shotguns, something considered as a tradition in the Cornhill family at a burial ceremony.

The Zambian freedom fighter was born a Siamese twin in Macha, Choma district a day after Christmas in 1932 to George Stephen Howard Cornhill and Mary Muma. His Siamese twin brother died at the age of six and the deceased met his father for only 11 months.

Mr Cornhill attended school in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) with Aaron Milner another freedom fighter, who served as a minister in President Kaunda's government.

Having lost his scholarship in South Africa, Mr Cornhill studied law in Tanzania as a day scholar.

He also attended school in South Africa's Cape Province with John Mwanakatwe, who became Zambia’s first education minister and who was the first African to obtain a university degree in Northern Rhodesia.

Mr Cornhill got inspired to take up civil rights activism after meeting India's Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, South Africa's foremost freedom fighter and first African President.

As a result of his involvement in civil rights activism, Mr Cornhill lost his scholarship for his studies in South Africa and was forced to return to Zambia.

His civil rights activism spread to Kenya, where he was involved in the Mau Mau uprising, a military struggle by the Africans against the British Army.
It was as a result of the Mau Mau uprising in the early 1960s that led the British Government to grant sovereign rule to indigenous Kenyans.

After Northern Rhodesia gained political independence, Mr Cornhill served in 18 parastatal companies including Ndola's Indeni Petroleum Refinery, INDECO, Maamba Collieries, Zambia State Insurance Corporation and National Hotels Corporation.

As businessman, he participated in buying cattle from Southern Province and was also involved in hunting crocodiles for their skins. He was employed at the age of 19 by the Lever Brothers in Ndola.

Family members children and grand children laying wreaths

He is survived by 30 grandchildren, three great grandchildren and 13 children who were born between 1962 and 1982.

After burial and speeches, many dignitaries and other curious mourners congratulated Mr Chibambula over his speech and wanted to know more about MHT.