Zambia buries Sata
STATE FUNERAL FOR PRESIDENT: 77-YEAR-OLD SERVED FOR THREE YEARS
Has been replaced by Vice President Guy Scott until an election is held within 90 days.
Zambia’s President Michael Sata was buried yesterday with full honours at a state funeral following his death at a London hospital two weeks ago. Tens of thousands of Zambians and about a dozen African leaders, including South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, turned out to bid farewell to the leader who was sent off with a 21gun salute.
Sata’s widow Christine and other mourners wept uncontrollably as the casket was lowered into the ground at Lusaka’s exclusive graveyard for Zambian presidents.
Earlier mourners packed the capital city’s 50 000-seater Heroes Stadium for a farewell service.
One of Sata’s sons, Gerald, gave his father a moving send off, taking to the microphone to sing
by Luther Vandross. Overtaken by emotion, mourners dressed in black or in outfits bearing the late president’s portrait, wept openly as Gerald Sata sang.
Sata died at the age of 77 while undergoing treatment for an undisclosed illness at in London’s private King Edward VII hospital.
The president of Zimbabwe and Africa’s oldest leader, 90-year-old Robert Mugabe paid tribute to “this African giant, courageous man” as Sata’s body lay in a casket draped in a Zambian flag before burial.
“He was a great man indeed who sought to change the local arena for the better,” said Mugabe.
Sata died only days after Zambia celebrated half a century of independence.
Nicknamed “King Cobra” for his acerbic tongue, Sata has been replaced by Vice President Guy Scott until an election is held within 90 days of his death.
Scott – born of British parents and Africa’s fi rst white leader since South Africa’s apartheid era – cannot run because Zambia’s constitution bars candidates of direct foreign lineage.
Sata came to power in 2011 elections on populist promises to transform the copper-rich country within three months by tackling corruption, lowering taxes and creating jobs.
But Sata’s critics say that by the time he died he had transformed into an authoritarian populist as his anti-graft crusade targeted political adversaries.
Sata, who rose from cleaning railway platforms in London to the country’s top job, died after serving three years of a five-year -term. –