BURYING EDGAR LUNGU  IN TEMPORAL GRAVE IN SOUTH AFRICA IS NOW IN BEST INTEREST OF FAMILY & THE NATION – Peter Sinkamba

By Peter Sinkamba

BURYING ECL IN TEMPORAL GRAVE IN SOUTH AFRICA IS NOW IN BEST INTEREST OF FAMILY & THE NATION
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The nation is bigger than government, because governments are temporal: they come and go. However, the nation lasts forever.

The drama that transpired last week, regarding the forceful grabbing of ECL mortal remains from Two Mountains morgue, and subsequent post mortem, without the knowledge and presence of the family and the court (sheriff), shook the nation terribly. The act by the Zambian Government, in collusion with the South African police, was worse than witchcraft.

The family is extremely traumatised and devastated by the act. They are not even sure whether any organs were harvested from the body. They now have to endure more expenses of hiring a pathologist to reexamine the body to check on whether any organ was harvested from the body.

Two Mountains morgue management wrote to the Lungu family to inform them they will not accept ECL body anymore. The family had to run around to find an alternative secure morgue. Now, government has demanded that it wants to know the new morgue contracted to keep ECL’s body. Government says it wants to access the body again.

After the traumatising and devastating events of government acts last week, only a foolish family would show government the new location of the morgue, unless so compelled by a court order.

To avoid further traumatising and devastating events, the best solution for now is to use the Kwame Nkrumah formula. In the Nkrumah case, Ghana’s first president, died on April 27, 1972, in Romania and was initially buried in Guinea-Conakry where he lived in exile. Nkrumah’s body was later returned to Ghana and buried in his hometown of Nkroful in July 1972.

In 1992, his remains were exhumed and moved to the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra, where he now rests in a marble mausoleum. I have visited this mausoleum several times.

ECL deserves the Nkrumah formula. Temporal burial in South Africa would cool off the tempers and bring temporal closure. A state funeral and mausoleum would follow later. Afterall, closure is more important than state funeral and mausoleum.

The temporal burial should take place privately, preferrably this week or latest next before election campaigns begin. Private like that of Former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari burial. Buhari was buried privately in his hometown of Daura, Katsina State, on July 15, 2025.

There is so much to write about ECL leadership, death and burial. For now, let’s temporarily bury his remains in South Africa.