Source: Africa Publicity
President Hakainde Hichilema has declared a five-day of national mourning in Zambia following the death of former Zambian Vice President, Dr. Guy Scott.
Dr. Scott, who in 2014 became Africa’s first white head of state in two decades when he briefly served as acting president, died at the age of 82, the Zambian government announced on Wednesday, July 15, 2026.
He died in Lusaka at his farm in the Leopards Hill area after an illness, according to the government in a statement.
Dr. Scott served as Vice President under then President Michael Sata from 2011 to 2014.
He became acting president after Sata’s death in October 2014, serving until January 2015.
His brief tenure made him Africa’s first white head of state in two decades, since South Africa’s F.W. de Klerk left office in 1994.
A Cambridge-educated economist born in Zambia to Scottish parents, he was constitutionally barred from running in the subsequent presidential election because both his parents were not born in Zambia.
President Hichilema has pledged to give Dr. Scott a state funeral, government statement indicated.
Zambians are expected to observe the five-day of national mourning.
