http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/30/world/africa/michael-sata-sharp-tongued-president-of-zambia-dies-at-77.html 2014-10-29 12:37:30 Michael Sata, Sharp-Tongued President of Zambia, Dies at 77 The cause of Mr. Sata’s death, after months of largely unchronicled illness, was not made public. === LONDON — Michael Sata, the president of The cause of his death, after months of largely unchronicled illness, was not made public. The Zambian government, and Mr. Sata himself, persistently denied suggestions that he had a terminal illness, even when he missed an appearance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York this year after reports that he had been taken ill in his hotel room. Shortly before he left for New York, Mr. Sata mocked people who said he was sick, and was quoted as telling the opening of Parliament in Lusaka, the capital: “I am not dead yet.” Mr. Sata left for London 10 days ago for what the authorities called a “medical checkup abroad,” without revealing his destination. The government met on Wednesday in Lusaka to determine an interim leader until elections are held within 90 days. The two leading candidates are Vice President Guy Scott, a white Zambian and former farmer and government minister, and Edgar Lungu, the defense minister, news reports said. Michael Chilufya Sata was born on July 6, 1937, in Mpika, in the north of the country, then under British rule and known as Northern Rhodesia. He had scant formal education and at one stage joined the seminary, intending to become a priest, according to a Zambian historian, Field Ruwe, quoted by Agence France-Presse. Instead, he became a police officer. At one point, he spent time in London, working as a sweeper and porter at a railroad station, and, on his return home, entered politics. He rose to become governor of Lusaka and worked closely under two former presidents, Kenneth Kaunda and Frederick Chiluba, before joining the opposition in 2001. After losing in three election bids, the gravel-voiced He appointed Mr. Scott as his vice president. The two had worked closely in promoting the Patriotic Front party. Such was Mr. Sata’s willingness to talk bluntly that he once told a senior aide who apologized for public remarks that offended the leadership in South Africa, the regional powerhouse, that “you cannot be diplomatic all the time.” He proved that point himself in July 2012, during a visit to Zambia by former President George W. Bush, according to African news reports, calling Mr. Bush a colonialist and referring pointedly to the scars of slavery on American society at a public gathering attended by journalists. Mr. Bush replied that the United States had never been a colonial power. In office, Mr. Sata had acquired a reputation for intolerance for political challengers, although his style was far less autocratic than that of some other African leaders, including President Robert G. Mugabe in neighboring Zimbabwe, with whom he cultivated friendly relations. An opposition leader, Frank Bwalya, faced defamation charges this year after likening Mr. Sata to a kind of potato used in local slang to denote a person who does not listen to others. He died at the private King Edward VII hospital in London. His wife, Christine Kaseba, and his son, Mulenga Sata, at his bedside, according to Roland Msiska, the cabinet secretary in Lusaka. His absence from Lusaka meant that he missed one of Zambia’s milestones: the celebrations last week of 50 years of independence from Britain.