London, England (October 29) - Zambian President Michael Sata died at a London hospital on Tuesday night after receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness. He was 77. Media sources said he died after a sudden onset of a heightened heart rate at King Edward V11 Hospital on Tuesday night.
"It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of our beloved president," Zambian cabinet secretary Roland Msiska said on national TV in Lusaka. "I urge you all to remain calm, united and peaceful during this very difficult period."
The president's wife and son were at his bedside when he died, a few days after celebrations marking his country's 50th anniversary of Independence (October 24, 1964).
He is the second Zambian head of state to die in office after Levy Mwanawasa in 2008.
President Sata had not been seen in public for some time. It was common knowledge in Lusaka that he was unwell and had sought treatment overseas.
Vice-President Guy Scott - known as Zambia's most popular mzungu (whiteman) - has regularly stood in for President Sata at official events.
Tonight, the 70- year old ex-farmer and economist was made Zambia's acting president, ending speculation that his racial and cultural heritage would stop him being acting leader in the copper-rich landlocked southern African state where white people make up less than 40,000 of Zambia's 13 million population.
Known as "King Cobra" because of his venomous tongue, Michael Chilufya Sata was born on July 6, 1937 at Mtika in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia).
He was poorly educated but managed to enrol as a constable in the Northern Rhodesian Police Force (NRPF) in 1956.
It was a time of worsening conflict between the colonial government and militant trade unionists. The police were used to crush dissent. In 1959 Sata was dismissed from the NRPF and later imprisoned for two years. Sata told journalists how he had encouraged young Africans to use violence against the colonial authorities, a story which few of his African contemporaries swallowed.
He became prominent in the trade union movement and shortly before Independence he went on an advanced industrial relations course in the USSR.
He returned to Zambia but left again in 1967 for Britain where he worked for General Motors and British Railways, returning to Zambia in 1973 after the inauguration of the one party state by President Kaunda.
In 1985 Kaunda appointed him Governor of Lusaka where he earned a reputation as a man of action with a sharp tongue. He became too popular in the Zambian capital for Kaunda's liking and was switched to a backroom portfolio, Minister of State in charge of decentralisation.
He strongly resisted the ending of the one party state but in 1990 decided to "go with the flow" after a series of foot riots in 1990, urban discontent which signalled the end of Kaunda's long political career. Sata switched from Kaunda's United National Independence Party (UNIP) and joined the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) which crushed Kaunda in 1990.
Sata formed a close relationship with Zambia's new leader, the massively corrupt Frederick Chiluba and was soon rewarded with numerous posts in the party and in government.
They too fell out and Sata went on to form the Patriotic Front (PF) from where he nurtured his long standing presidential ambitions.
After several setbacks, Michael Sata was made President of Zambia in 2011.
Penny Dale, the BBC's former correspondent in Zambia said tonight: "At first he looked as if he would keep promises to tackle corruption and create jobs and prosperity. But his term of office was marred by a crackdown on political opposition and a decline in the economy."
Zambia's caretaker head of state is a fan of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe
Guy Scott is a 70-year old farmer, economist, journalist and a former Zambian Minister of Agriculture. He was born in Livingstone in 1944, son of a Scottish doctor who left Glasgow to make a new life in Northern Rhodesia. Guy is a Cambridge University trained economist and he entered politics in 1990, joining the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) which won the country's first multi-patty elections the following year.
He joined Michael Sata's Patriotic Front (PF) in 2001 and was appointed Vice President of Zambia in 2011 after the PF's election victory. After Sata appointed him, Scott attended several high-ranking meetings with African leaders.
"I think they regard me as a sort of mascot a good luck charm for African politics," Scott said in 2013 during an interview with The Guardian newspaper. Last year he held long talks in Harare with President Robert Mugabe and came away clearly impressed. He refers to Mugabe as "Bob" and praised him in an interview with the UK's "Spectator" magazine in 2012. Guy Scott will remain as acting president of Zambia for the next 90 days. Whether he'll keep the job remains to be seen.
Don't hold your breath.
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