Guy Scott

Guy Scott
Vice President of the Republic of Zambia
Incumbent
Assumed office 23 September 2011
President	Michael Sata
Preceded by	George Kunda
Personal details
Born	1 June 1944 (1944-06-01) (age 67) Livingstone, Zambia
Political party	Patriotic Front
Alma mater	Cambridge University, University of Sussex
Profession	Agricultural Economics

Dr Guy Scott (born 1 June 1944) is a Zambian politician. He is currently the Vice President of Zambia.

Personal Details

Scott was born in 1944 in Livingstone. He completed his education in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and the United Kingdom at Cambridge University and University of Sussex where he obtained a degree in economics and a PhD in cognitive science^[1]. He is married and currently resides in Lusaka.

Professional Achievements

After graduating from Trinity Hall, Cambridge University in 1965, Scott joined the government of the Republic of Zambia where he served in the Ministry of Finance as a planner. He was also the deputy editor of the Business and Economy of East and Central Africa during this period.

In 1970, Scott left the government to become an entrepreneur and set up Walkover Estates, an agribusiness venture, which ventured into high value crops such as irrigated wheat, strawberries, and a wide range off season vegetables. In 1978, he co-founded the Mpongwe Development Company alongside with the Commonwealth Development Corporation. He then went on to engage in lecturing and research in robotics at Oxford University during the 1980's.

Political Career

In 1990, Scott joined active politics and joined the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) where he was elected to serve as Chair of the agriculture committee at the first convention. His participation in Zambian politics was inspired by his late father who was an ally of Zambian nationalists and a founder of anti-colonial government newspapers including the African Mail, now the Zambia Daily Mail. During the 1950's, his father was a member of the federal parliament for Lusaka, standing on an independent ticket.

Scott was nominated as an MMD candidate for Mpika in the National Assembly during the 1991 general election. He was elected and subsequently appointed as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. He presided over a number of policy reforms and was responsible for managing the very dangerous food situation that developed after the “drought of the century” in January and February of 1992. There was no reserve maize in Zambia and none in southern Africa, so emergency arrangements had to be made to import it from overseas and move it into Zambia on dilapidated rail and road networks. He also oversaw the drought recovery “bumper harvest” of 1992/93.

In 1996, Scott resigned from the MMD to form the Lima Party together with Ben Kapita, the then-president of the ZNFU. He piloted the merger between the Lima Party and other parties including Dean Mungomba's ZADECO to form ZAP. However, he later left ZAP and concentrated on his agricultural consultancy company. In 2001, he joined the Patriotic Front and returned to politics. He returned to the National Assembly when he was elected as the member for Lusaka Central in the 2006 general election. Guy Scott also rose to the position of Vice President of the Patriotic Front.

The Zambian Presidential elections were held on 20 September 2011 and final results released on 23 September 2011, showed the Patriotic Front's presidential candidate, Michael Sata, winning by receiving about 43% of the vote against 36% for the MMD's and current republican president Rupiah Banda. Guy Scott was consequently sworn in as Republican Vice President on 29 September 2011.

References

1. ^ "Zambia: ‘Guy Scott Profile’". http://www.patriotic-front.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19&Itemid=20/. Retrieved 23 September 2011. 

Persondata
Name	Scott, Guy
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1 June 1944
Place of birth	Livingstone, Zambia
Date of death
Place of death