Chaminuka Resort CEO Stelios Sardanis Buried on Election Day, Days After Fatal Home Invasion

CHISAMBA — Stelios Sardanis, chief executive of Chaminuka Resort, was buried on August 13, the same day Zambians went to the polls in the general election. Footage of the burial has circulated online. Sardanis, 64, died on August 9 after an armed gang broke into his home on the Chaminuka estate in Chisamba District. Police say the attackers forced their way through the main glass door of the residence between 1am and 1:15am, went to his bedroom, and assaulted him — he sustained a stab wound to the head — before fleeing with a safe containing documents, family valuables and an undisclosed amount of cash. Lodge staff took him to CFB Medical Centre in Lusaka, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Police spokesperson Godfrey Chilabi said officers have processed the crime scene and that the security guard on duty that night was detained for questioning. Seven men, all from Lusaka, are now in custody — four arrested first, and three more picked up in the capital on August 11. Chilabi said investigators are still working to establish each suspect's role and have not confirmed a motive. He also cautioned against speculation linking the killing to politics, saying rumours "could compromise investigations and further distress the bereaved family." Sardanis was the son of Andrew Sardanis, a Cypriot immigrant who settled in Northern Rhodesia in 1950, joined UNIP, and stood for Kabompo in the 1962 election. Andrew Sardanis went on to serve as Permanent Secretary for State Participation and chaired the body overseeing government's stake in the copper mines. President Edgar Lungu awarded him Zambia's Order of the Eagle in 2019. He died in 2021. Andrew Sardanis built Chaminuka as a family retreat in 1978 and opened it to the public in 1998. The 10,000-acre property on Lake Chitoka is home to more than 70 wildlife species and 300 bird species. He described it as "a warm microcosm of Zambia" — a hundred families from every tribe. Stelios Sardanis held the title Legacy Success