ALEX SHAPI

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
1985 - 1991

Alex Shapi, the last Secretary of State for Defense and Security (the post was abolished in 1991), was born on October 25, 1932 in Samfya district of the Luapula Province. He went to school at St. Joseph's Primary School and Lubwa Mission School and Oxford University. He rose through the ranks of the United Independence Party and was appointed a deputy minister in 1964. President Kenneth Kaunda made him a full minister by giving him the Southern Province portfolio on January 4, 1969.

In 1973, he was appointed to the Central Committee which was made senior to the Cabinet. On April 24, 1985, he was named the Secretary of State for Defense and Security and held that post until 1991 when UNIP and Kaunda lost the general elections. He retired from politics and moved to his farm near Mufulira.

Shapi is remembered mostly for his work as Member of the Central Committee for the Copperbelt Province where he helped bring down armed robberies by the creation of the flying squad, a team of police officers and dare- devil drivers that pursued armed robbers right into neighboring Zaire. Shapi also played a key role in formulating policies to counteract the destablisation moves from South Africa and claimed that the food riots of 1986 were part of a plot by the countries' enemies to sabotage the country.

Alex Shapi died on February 24, 2003 after a short illness in Mufulira. He was survived by his wife, Sara, and nine children.