Zambia’s Guy Scott became Africa’s first white head of state in 20 years on Wednesday after the president, “King Cobra” Michael Sata, died in a London hospital aged 77.
Scott, a Cambridge-educated economist born in Zambia 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 in a presidential election because his parents were not born in Zambia, 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 his interim appointment.
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