Guy Scott was conspicuous by his pallor as the only white leader present at United States (US) President Barack Obama's US-Africa summit in Washington earlier this month.
The rather eccentric Scott - who last year earned himself a certain local notoriety by calling South Africans ‘backward' and suggesting that President Jacob Zuma was doing no better for most South Africans than the last white president, FW de Klerk - was deputising for his boss, Zambian President Michael Sata.
A few weeks later, Vice President Scott had to do that again, this time at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit. The official explanation for Sata's absences has been that he is saving money, but this is not a very convincing excuse, especially for the SADC summit, which took place literally just across the river at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
Sata's absences have inevitably fuelled the growing speculation that he is gravely - some even say terminally - ill with prostate cancer. Late in June his office announced that he had flown to Israel for a ‘working holiday,' but the more likely reason was to receive medical treatment, according to many sources.
Some in Zambia say he has been bed-ridden for about two months. ‘He is thin and gaunt and wears a vacant stare that was not part of him until now,' said one journalist. Another, though, believes it is possible that Sata is slowly recovering after his treatment in Israel.
The rumours around Sata's health are rather eerily reminiscent of those around Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who, of course, repeatedly defies the frequent reports of his impending demise by popping up again - looking ever more stubbornly hale and hearty, despite his nine decades on this planet - as he did at the SADC summit where he took the organisation's chair.