THE Zambian government is set to declare a public holiday on the day Dr. Milton Obote will be buried in his home village of Akokoro in northern Uganda.
The burial has been slated for October 24, which is also Zambia’s Independence Day.
“On the day of burial we will declare a day of national mourning,” Zambia’s foreign affairs minister Ronnie Shikapwasha told a New Vision correspondent in Lusaka.
He said Zambia would mourn with Ugandans for a week over the loss of a “great son of Africa.”
“His body will lie in state at his home and Zambians shall mourn with the Ugandans,” said Shikapwasha.
He said his government would foot the costs for the funeral ceremonies in Lusaka.
Shikapwasha, however, did not say how much it would cost.
The body arrived at the Lusaka International Airport from South Africa on Saturday at 6:30pm Zambian time aboard a chartered Angolan Buffalo plane.
It was transferred to Obote’s residence in Longacres, Kabulonga, a Lusaka suburb.
President Levy Mwanawasa was yesterday expected to visit St. Anne Ambulance’s funeral house where the body was kept.
A funeral service will be held this morning at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the headquarters of the United Church of Zambia.
The body will be returned to St. Anne’s for final handling and will leave Lusaka on Tuesday, arriving at Entebbe around noon.
