GOVERNMENT has announced the death of former Republican Vice-President and Acting President, Hon. Dr. Guy Lindsay Scott, aged 82. According to a press statement issued by Secretary to the Cabinet Patrick K. Kangwa, Dr. Scott passed away on Wednesday, 15th July 2026 at his Trotover Farm in Leopards Hill, Lusaka, after an illness. Dr. Scott

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GOVERNMENT has announced the death of former Republican Vice-President and Acting President, Hon. Dr. Guy Lindsay Scott, aged 82.

According to a press statement issued by Secretary to the Cabinet Patrick K. Kangwa, Dr. Scott passed away on Wednesday, 15th July 2026 at his Trotover Farm in Leopards Hill, Lusaka, after an illness.

Dr. Scott served Zambia in several senior capacities. He was Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries in the Cabinet of the Second President, Dr. Frederick Chiluba. During his tenure from 1991 to 1993, he was widely credited with averting a national catastrophe during “the drought of the century” by modernizing logistics and securing emergency imports, paving the way for a record harvest in 1993.

He later served as Republican Vice-President from 2011 to 2014 under the Fifth President, His Excellency Mr. Michael Chilufya Sata.

Following President Sata’s death on 28th October 2014, Dr. Scott assumed office as Acting President of the Republic of Zambia from October 2014 to January 2015. His historic 90-day tenure marked him as the first white head of state in a democratic African nation, and the first on the African mainland since 1989. During the transition, he maintained national stability and oversaw the democratic election of his successor, President Edgar Lungu.

Born in 1944 in Livingstone, Dr. Scott was the son of Alec Scott, an ally of the Zambian independence movement. He was an accomplished academic, holding a degree in Economics from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and a Master’s and Ph.D. in Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence from the University of Sussex. He also conducted research in robotics at Oxford University.

Before politics, he served as a planner in the Ministry of Finance and founded Walkover Estates, a successful agribusiness and major exporter of Zambian produce to European markets.

In 2001, Dr. Scott co-founded the Patriotic Front [PF] alongside Michael Sata and was regarded as a strategic “voice of reason” in transforming the party into a national powerhouse.

President Hakainde Hichilema has accorded the Late Dr. Scott a State Funeral in recognition of his distinguished professional and political contribution to the nation.

The State Funeral burial programme will be released in due course.

May his soul rest in eternal peace.

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