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Zambia's President Michael Sata (L)
reviews a guard of honour outside the National Assembly building on September
19, 2014 in Lusaka. (Photo: AFP Source: The Citizen)
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Media reports say Zambia on
Monday held a final requiem service for president Michael Sata ahead of his
burial on Tuesday, after a week of lying in state in the capital city.
The Citizen reports Clerics from different
faith groups led prayers in parliament, in a ceremony attended by diplomats and
politicians, including the country’s founding president Kenneth Kaunda and
Sata’s predecessor Rupiah Banda.
The public had until
Sunday been streaming in to view the body of the 77-year-old leader who died on
October 28 in a London hospital while undergoing treatment for an undisclosed
illness.
“His wish and desire was
to develop this country. His wish and desire was to bring economic
development,” said Bishop Alick Banda.
Bishop Banda called on
the country’s new leader to fulfil Sata’s wish of enacting a new constitution,
a process which has been marked by delays.
Sata had promised to
deliver a new draft in the run up to his election in 2011.
The leader, nicknamed
“King Cobra” for his acerbic tongue will be buried in Lusaka on Tuesday, in a
graveyard reserved for heads of state.
The funeral is expected
to be attended by regional leaders. Sata is Zambia’s second leader to die in
office, in 2008 former president Levy Mwanawasa died in France after an
illness.
Vice President Guy Scott
has taken over as acting president until an election is held within 90 days.
Scott — born of British
parents and Africa’s first white leader since South Africa’s apartheid era —
cannot run because Zambia’s constitution bars candidates of direct foreign
lineage.
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