• WORKS to prepare the burial site for late President Michael Sata at Embassy Park in Lusaka have started. (Below) Lusaka City Market traders from Eastern Province yesterday powdered their ‘tribal cousins’ from Northern Province as part of mourning.
Pictures by CHUSA SICHONE

By CATHERINE NYIRENDA –

THE body of late President Michael Sata, who died in London on Wednesday evening, arrives in Zambia tomorrow.
President Sata’s body arrives at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport at 10:00 hours in readiness for burial set for Tuesday, November 11, 2014 at the Embassy Park in Lusaka.
Four Cabinet ministers have since travelled to London to make arrangements to bring the body of Mr Sata, who died at King Edward VII hospital in London.
The quartet is Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda, his Foreign Affairs counterpart Harry Kalaba, Gender and Child Development Minister Inonge Wina and Tourism and Art Minister Jean Kapata.
Secretary to the Cabinet Roland Msiska announced at a Press briefing that acting President Guy Scott would lead Government officials, military personnel and family members and mourners to receive the body at the airport.
“Immediately after the arrival ceremony at the airport, a military escort will lead the funeral procession to Mulungushi International Conference Centre, where the acting President Dr Scott would lay a wreath, thereafter the body would lie in state at the conference centre until November 9, 2014,” Dr Msiska said.
Body viewing of the late President would commence on November 2 at Mulungushi International Conference Centre, and all members of the public have been encouraged to pay their last respects to the late Head of State on a daily basis from 12:00 to 18:00 hours.
The body of President Sata would not go round the country but instead conventional television links would be put in strategic places countrywide for people to follow the funeral procession.
“Cabinet and the family have agreed that we follow the programme as a way of giving the President a dignified funeral, so people from provinces should not travel but follow the proceedings on these conventional TVs,” he said.
Dr Msiska announced that there would also be a thanksgiving ceremony at Parliament building on Monday, November 10, 2014 at 10: 00 hours.
Burial service is expected to take place on Tuesday, November 11, 2014 and would be preceded by a requiem church service at the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka.
The Government has since earmarked Belvedere Lodge in Lusaka as the funeral place for close relatives while other mourners are encouraged to assemble at the Showgrounds where sermons would be conducted and solemn music played.
The period of national mourning, which started on October 29, 2014, would end on the day the late President will be put to rest.
Dr Msiska said the two-week period of national mourning was within the confines of the law and would not be prolonged as the President would not be taken round the country.
Books of condolences were yesterday opened at Government House in Lusaka, in provincial administrations and in Zambian missions abroad.
Dr Msiska also said that Attorney General Musa Mwenye would soon issue a detailed statement to clarify constitutional articles on the transfer of power when a sitting President dies in office.