HOW 77-YEAR OLD PRESIDENT OF ZAMBIA DIED I OFFICE

Michael Sata

President of Zambia, Michael Chiluyfa Sata was declared dead on Tuesday, October 28, 2014 at the age of 77 after receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness in the United Kingdom. President Sata, nicknamed ‘King Cobra’ while he was an opposition figure, died in London’s King Edward VII hospital on Tuesday night, October 28, 2014. Although the cause of death has not been revealed, he died after 3 years and a month after after taking office as Zambia’s president having been sworn into office in September 2011. Sata, a veteran politician in the southern African nation, had served in other levels including city council, as a member of Parliament and Cabinet minister for local government his election into office as president. ‘It’s shocking, it’s devastating, because I knew he was sick. But I did not know it was going to end this way,’ George Zulu, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Zambia said, adding: ‘(We) lost a man who devoted his whole life to his country.’ Born on July 6, 1937, Sata was a Zambian politician who eventually ruled as the fifth President of Zambia. Noted as a social democrat, he led the Patriotic Front (PF), a major political party in Zambia, eventually to victory in 2011. Under President Frederick Chiluba, Sata was a minister during the 1990s as a leading member of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) government before he went into the opposition in 2001, forming the PF. He contested against President Levy Mwanawasa in the 2006 presidential election but lost, with the same outcome playing out in 2008 when he lost to President Rupiah Banda, whom he eventually defeated as incumbent, to win the September 2011 presidential election.... 


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