Zambia’s King Cobra spits no more: bequeaths Free Africa its first White President

Zambian President Michael Sata passed away in a London hospital last night. A rather telling tweet I saw this morning offered that a good indication of African progress will be when its leaders die at home rather than abroad. Sata, or King Cobra as he liked to be called, was a deadly politician, a larger than life character who wasn't above using the power of his office to force through his will. His passing has unleashed an interesting result – post colonial Africa now has, albeit temporarily, its first White President in Sata's deputy, Cambridge University educated economist Guy Scott. But as we heard on CNBC Africa today in this fascinating interview with the Thomson Reuters Southern Africa bureau chief Ed Cropley, even if all Zambians believe Scott is the best man for the job, he won't get it. The Zambian Constitution precludes Zambian-born Scott from becoming President as his parents were not also born in the country. By those rules, The Leader of the Free World, US President Barack Obama, wouldn't have been allowed to stand for election to the Oval Office. Weird. – AH     

GUGULETHU MFUPHI: Zambian President, Michael Sata passed away last night. Joining us in the studio to share his views on the late President is Ed Cropley, Southern African Bureau Chief at Thomson Reuters, good to have you with us today Ed, despite the bad news coming through. Maybe if you could walk us through the character of Michael Sata. You mentioned that he was quite a colourful individual.

ED CROPLEY: Yes. There are a few people in Southern Africa, who can lay claim to such a strong personality and a public personality that really grabbed the headlines, and personally, I remember interviewing him when he was still opposition leader, I think, in 2009. It was one of the most uncomfortable interviews I ever had. I was made to feel like a ten year-old school boy, sitting naughtily at the back of the class. He was a very brisk character. He didn't stand on ceremony. Asked tough questions and really put people on the spot. He wanted to make sure reporters had all the background information, absolutely down pat. He didn't suffer fools gladly and he really stamped his authority on the Zambian Presidency. Of course, a lot of people maybe didn't like that. He had a very, sharp tongue.

Not only with his political deployment but also sometimes with foreign investors, especially if they had plans to lay off large amounts of miners, as happened in the copper belt last year.

ALEC HOGG: Lots of reforms though, that he introduced into the economy.

ED CROPLEY: Lots of reforms, although sometimes, from an investment point of view, they weren't necessarily entirely favourable. He always had that very populous line there, on the side of the workers. I think that's the legacy of his past, as a Union Leader, in his distant past. He had, of course, many hats throughout his career. He was a policeman, a railway worker famously, at London's Victoria Station, and ultimately President and that leftist, slightly populist leaning, psychological leaning didn't ever really desert him. There was that famous incident last year, of course with Konkola Copper Mines, who were trying to get rid of 1.500 workers and he threatened to personally withdraw the Mining License of the company. This of course is the biggest, private employer in Zambia. Mysteriously the Work Permit of the Foreign Chief Executive of the company was revoked, so he was quite happy to play dirty, if it suited his purposes.

GUGULETHU MFUPHI: But that worked to the benefit of the country though.

ED CROPLEY: I think the jury is still out on that. Obviously, the Unions themselves liked that very high level of political support. At the same time, investors, taking the longer-term view, aren't really going to start ploughing lots of money into new mining ventures and indeed new mines, if they've got this very aggressive, sometimes it might be said 'ad hoc policy making' coming right from the top. The jury is still out on whether he was a force for good or indeed a force for instability and bad for Zambia.

ALEC HOGG: Was he a force for financial accumulation, for his family? We do see this on the African Continent often. I think Bongo is a great example, the postal worker who is one of the ten richest people in the world, when he died, from Gabon. Was the late President of Zambia a wealthy man when he died?

ED CROPLEY: There is certainly no evidence of that and I think Bongo and Sata don't deserve to be in the same sentence at all, in this point of view. He had a very large family. He had 20 plus children. I haven't been through the genealogical records to work out exactly how many. He did have a very large family but when he came to power he stressed his 'back to basics' 'ethical Christian family principles' and nothing has really come to light, to suggest that he deviated in any meaningful way, in Office, from those ideas and those preachings.

ALEC HOGG: He's a bit of a role model in certain ways. What about his relationship with the Chinese?

ED CROPLEY: Very interesting. Before his election in 2011, he essentially didn't have a relationship with the Chinese. He used them very much as a populous political, tub fronting, rallying point. He had scathing words for the Chinese, the Malaysians, and the Indian investors but, the moment he was elected, who's the first person he called? He called the Chinese Ambassador, yes, I think within 48 hours of his inauguration the Chinese Ambassador was sitting down, having tea with him. Hands across the table, sweetness and light and, in fact, there was really nothing concrete that emerged from his rhetoric, in terms of policy towards China. He used, like any canny populous political opposition leader; he used any single type of leader, at his disposal. Then once he came into power, he knew exactly which way …..

ALEC HOGG: So a politician and not a Statesman?

ED CROPLEY: I think that's true, yes.

GUGULETHU MFUPHI: King Cobra was the nickname that they gave to him clearly, as you mentioned, because of his very sharp tongue.

ED CROPLEY: Yes, that's true, and I, having felt it myself it always featured prominently in whatever we wrote about him. In fact, on his desk, in his Offices in the Patriotic Front Head Quarters in Lusaka, on Cairo Road, he had a little plastic statuette of a king cobra, which he used as a paperweight for all his minutes and note takings. He clearly didn't…he was actually quite proud to be called king cobra. It is something that he felt quite happy with.

ALEC HOGG: He sounds like a very, dominant personality. With his departure, is it likely that the political landscape, in Zambia, will change?

ED CROPLEY: He's been very polarising, during his time there, and a lot of people were accusing him of exploiting ethnic divisions in Zambia. The ethnic divisions in Zambia are far more nuanced and less serious and tense, I suppose then there might be in other countries but they are still bubbling away, beneath the surface and Sata was accused, often, of exploiting these for his own political gains. Given his overall abrasive character, I think we are now going to see a period of greater consensus building, possibly, within Government and within the Administration. His two successors, well his two potential successors (I should say), we have Guy Scott who's the official Vice-President and then we have Edgar Lungu who is the Acting President. There's some confusion and a bit of uncertainty as to who is going to emerge as the Interim Zambian Leader, in the 90 days, until they have an election to choose a new President.

ALEC HOGG: Is it conceivable that Guy Scott could be elected, the first white President, post-colonialism?

ED CROPLEY: According to the Constitution, it is not conceivable, no. He could become President but he could not run for President because of the Scottish parentage of his parents, so although he is Zambian. He was born in Zambia, so he has full citizenship rights. His parents didn't have full Zambian citizenship, therefore he cannot run to be President, but he can become President.

ALEC HOGG: Extraordinary, so does anyone else in the world can have that kind of a law.

GUGULETHU MFUPHI: And that's law?

ALEC HOGG: Yes, I know in America you've got to be born in America to be President but not your parents otherwise Obama wouldn't be there.

ED CROPLEY: Yes, there's Aung San Suu Kyi, in Burma, or now Myanmar, fell into a similar category because she married a foreign national. Her husband, Michael Aris, was a British academic, so this precluded her from standing for the Presidency in Myanmar. It is the only similar, sort of instance where I can see that arising.

ALEC HOGG: Fascinating.

GUGULETHU MFUPHI: Ed, thank you so much for your time today and, clearly having experienced the sharp tongue of the 'King Cobra'. Thanks for joining us today. That was Ed Cropley. He's the Southern African Bureau Chief at Thomson Reuters.