Cobra in the Boat: Michael Satas Zambia

Cobra in the Boat is a riveting account of how one of Zambia's most controversial presidents got to power and how he governed while in office. Michael Chilufya Sata was a populist with huge ambitions for his country. Few of these ambitions were actually realized because of Sata's poor health and his premature death. The political chaos that followed the president's demise was a direct consequence of Sata's failure to pay attention to constitutional detail. The book shows how this crisis could have been averted. Sata's penchant for dismissing theoretical detail as a waste of time had consequences in other areas of national life. The ill-conceived pay rise for already privileged public servants, the arbitrary decision to institute an unaffordable minimum wage, and the hasty creation of a new province and several districts, were examples of decisions that could have benefitted from rigorous theoretical input before implementation. In the short time that Sata was in office, he missed many opportunities to right historic wrongs and set Zambia on a firmer path to economic prosperity. Sata's performance while in office was as complex as his own personality. As mayor of Lusaka in the early days of his political career, Sata developed a reputation for financial prudence, but as president of the republic he was profligate and often erratic. Despite this Sata did manage some successes while serving as fifth president.