LUSAKA, (Reuters) – Zambia’s Guy Scott became Africa’s first white head of state in 20 years yesterday after the president, “King Cobra” Michael Sata, died in a London hospital aged 77.
Scott, a Cambridge-educated economist born to Scottish parents, had been Sata’s vice president. He will be interim leader until an election in three months, making him the first white African leader since South Africa’s F.W. de Klerk lost to Nelson Mandela in the 1994 election that ended apartheid.
Scott, 70, is ineligible to run for the presidency in the election because of citizenship restrictions, leaving defence minister Edgar Lungu and finance minister Alexander Chikwanda the most likely contenders for the ruling Patriotic Front party’s ticket, analysts say.
“Elections for the office of president will take place within 90 days. In the interim I am acting president,” Scott said in a brief televised address.
“The period of national mourning will start today. We will miss our beloved president and comrade.”
Many Zambians welcomed Scott’s interim appointment.
Scott is a lively character who has caused diplomatic controversy in the past, describing South Africans as “backward” in an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper last year.
“I like a lot of South Africans but they really think they’re the bees’ knees and actually they’ve been the cause of so much trouble in this part of the world,” he said.
“He is a black man in a white man’s skin,” said Nathan Phiri, a bus driver. “The very fact we accepted him as vice-president shows that we consider him as one of us.”
Sata, who was nicknamed “King Cobra” because of his sharp tongue, died on Tuesday, the government said earlier. He had been president of Zambia, Africa’s second-largest copper producer, since 2011.
