Guy Scott’s works, achievements can never be wished away

By Revelation Editor

The nation is today in mourning following the death of former Republican vice-president Dr Guy Scott, a towering figure in this country’s political history.

Dr Scott came to political prominence when he served as Agriculture minister and Mpika-Central member of parliament during the reign of second Republican president Frederick Chiluba and the MMD.

But Dr Scott did not stay too long in the Chiluba administration, in which he disagreed with the overreach by the president, especially when he pushed to amend the constitution to bar Dr Kenneth Kaunda over the parentage clause. Scott found himself in other political arrangements, including the Lima party.

However, he did not stay long there when that party’s political viability could not be sustained.

Soon after, Dr Scott joined his close friend Michael Sata in the PF, when it was not too common then to be associated with the party as it was just being formed. Together with Sata they worked extremely hard and by 2006 they had formed a formidable political party that almost seized power from then incumbent Levy Mwanawasa during that year’s general election. However, despite their best efforts, they lost that election to Mwanawasa, but not without making serious electoral inroads in key provinces of the country, including Lusaka and the Copperbelt, plus increasing their parliamentary representation from one to 43 MPs, as well as a significant chunk of mayors/council chairpersons and councillors across the country.

In doing so, Scott did not mind his excellent academic record obtained from the United Kingdom and the riches of that country. He was by that time well settled into the Zambian system, traversing some of the most treacherous routes and places, including crossing rivers to attain the political purposes he and Sata had embarked upon.

Following the death of Mwanawasa, the country went for another election in 2008 in which Sata and Scott faced late Mwanawasa’s vice-president Rupiah Banda. Even if they again lost that election, their political journey had now gotten a sense of inevitably this time around that it was just a matter of time before they wrestled power from the ruling MMD, as they only lost that election by 35,000 votes against the over 300,000 loss margin to Mwanawasa two years earlier.

And so in 2011, Sata and Scott managed to wrestle power from Rupiah Banda and the MMD in the 2011 general elections, with Sata appointing his closest friend and lieutenant Scott as vice-president, the first in the post independence times. Sata used to boast during that period that Zambia and the United States were the only two countries in the world at the time with black presidents and white vice-presidents. During that time, Barack Obama was president of the United States with Joe Biden as vice-president.

But Dr Scott’s stay as vice-president wasn’t as swift, with their being many complaints of attempts to remove him from the position following the factionalism that had fast developed within the PF soon after assuming power. Scott was viewed as having been aligned with another group in the party that supported one rival as a potential successor to Sata against the other group. As a result, things just boiled over following Sata’s death in 2014, where it had to take intervention for Lungu who had been left as acting president by Sata to hand over the instruments of power to the substantive vice-president Dr Scott. Of course the rest is history as Lungu eventually won a contested election as PF leader and with that participated in the 2015 election which he won. 

For Dr Scott, even if he had wanted to participate, he wouldn’t as he was constitutionally barred from doing the same over the same parentage clause he had differed with Chiluba many years ag

Lungu after winning the 2015 election did not retain Dr Scott as vice-president. This was despite arguments by some that Scott still had a lot more to offer to the nation. Later, Dr Scott joined Hakainde Hichilema’s UPND  together with his wife Charlotte.

However, despite the quarels and arguments, the role Dr Scott played in ushering PF into office can never be discounted. His role also in public service can never be discounted. It’s just that our politics are so petty in this country that when people differ politically, they always want to wash away someone’s noble achievements. Guy Scott’s works and achievements will stand as a testament and can never be wished away by anyone.

May the Memory of Dr Guy Scott be a blessing.