Buried Secrets: South Africans Expose the Lungu Family’s Hidden Agenda in Burial Standoff
By Farai Ruvanyathi
18th July 2025
Fate Steps In Where Diplomacy Fails
When adults fail to resolve simple matters with reason, fate often takes charge, and so it has in the case of former Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s controversial burial impasse.
What began as a solemn family dispute has now exploded into public spectacle, with a South African civil movement, the Progressive Forces of South Africa (PFSA), pulling back the curtain on what they allege to be the true motives behind the Lungu family’s refusal to repatriate his remains.
With each passing day, the situation takes on a more embarrassing and sinister dimension.
A Grieving Widow or a Calculating Heiress?
For weeks, Esther Nyawa Lungu has maintained a carefully cultivated image of a grieving widow, clad in black, her face solemn and drawn. But the PFSA claims this is merely a façade, suggesting the family’s insistence on keeping Lungu’s body in South Africa is rooted not in grief or principle, but in a desperate bid to conceal ill-gotten wealth and their pending criminal cases before Zambian courts.
According to the PFSA, the Lungu family is behaving like a “grumpy, selfish, corrupt mafia,” unwilling to let their patriarch return to the soil of his ancestors because his burial in Zambia might expose secrets they wish to keep buried.
For many Zambians, the underlying suspicions have always lingered. Yet, until now, political propaganda clouded the narrative, deflecting blame onto Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, unfairly so, while the true reasons went largely unexamined.
The King Speaks: A Cultural Rebuke
At a riveting press conference in South Africa yesterday, the PFSA brought out heavyweight voices to condemn the family’s actions.
King Khalo la Bataung Jacob Hlalele, monarch of the Bataung ba Hlalele Royal Kingdom, delivered a powerful and culturally charged statement:
“Edgar Lungu must be buried where the elders’ bones and graves are. Burying him in South Africa violates both custom and decency.”
His words struck at the heart of African tradition, underscoring how the ongoing impasse disrespects both Zambian and South African Bantu heritage.
Progressive Forces Accuse South African Government of Complicity
Mthetho Ngcukayithobi, the PFSA leader, did not mince words. He criticized South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s silence on the matter and questioned the motives behind Pretoria’s inaction.
“Why does this government hide behind the courts? What are they protecting, and at what cost to our dignity and security?”
Ngcukayithobi went further, accusing Zambia’s former Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba of adultery during his diplomatic posting as Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa, and alluding to a mysterious Zambian benefactor, possibly James Ndambo, who allegedly whisked Lungu away through a departure lounge in a luxury vehicle upon arrival in South Africa.
These revelations add layers of intrigue to an already murky affair.
A Brewing Storm Between Pretoria and Lusaka
The PFSA warned that allowing Lungu to be buried in South Africa would turn his grave into a shrine, attracting hordes of Zambian pilgrims who won’t return to their country, and potentially creating a security headache. While the warning carries an undertone of xenophobia, it has clearly struck a nerve, and elevated the issue from a private family matter to a national immigration security concern.
Meanwhile, the South African government’s indecision and reluctance to act may have quietly strained relations with Lusaka, where officials have reportedly grown impatient. Zambians have begun to publicly question why their government has swiftly repatriated the remains of South African freedom fighters buried in Zambia, yet their own president remains mummified in a South African morgue.
What if a Zambian citizen were to challenge this double standard in court, demanding proof of consent from the families of South African liberation fighters buried on Zambian soil? Such a move could open a Pandora’s box neither government is prepared to confront.
A Question of Dignity and Justice
The Lungu burial saga has exposed not just family secrets, but the frailty of diplomacy and the dangers of silence in the face of injustice. As South African activists refuse to let the matter rest and Zambians grow increasingly restless, both governments may soon be forced to confront uncomfortable truths.
When dignity is denied to the dead, it is the living who are haunted. How much longer can the charade last?
Try as hard they are doing, ECL will be buried in RSA. His enemies have suspicious intentions of wanting to have access to the dead body. But all those that loved ECL want him buried in RSA.
In the meantime, the open grave remains. And it shall be filled soon by the rightful occupant.
“HE THAT DIGS HOLES FOR OTHERS, SHALL HIMSELF BE BURIED IN THEM”. -EDITH NAWAKWI.
VOTE FOR CHANGE IN 2026.
Indigo Tyrol lungu the MF is dead
Hallelujah your father is dead and rotting in SA
If the family for Lungu refused him to be buried in there, do you think Hakainde’s family can agree? That’s a none starter, that grave is for Lungu, period.
South Africans have a right over their land, talking too much you Lungu family supporters may reduce further, your chances of burying in that foreign land.They are against having graves of foreigners in their country because they can turn into shrines where people may start making pilgrims and fail to return to their countries of origin.
Emmanuel, you see, too much talking causes problems. Now the whole world knows ati Uma nyenga bamuka bene. Wanya bakakwikatila uwobe naiwe.