Mabvuto Phiri writes ……✍️
Edgar Chagwa Lungu never renounced his status as former Head of State of Zambia.
Even when the law suspends the benefits of a former president who returns to active politics, the title or status of former president is not suspended.
He remains former president.
In fact, even after his benefits were suspended, ECL fondly and proudly signed his correspondences and addresses as the 6th president of Zambia and treasured this status until his death. .
Even in death, he remains the 6th president of Zambia.
This is not a personal and private title but an official state title in respect of the office he held.
Those who claim that ECL became a private person after his benefits were suspended should have asked ECL to drop his official statesman title of 6th president of Zambia if they truly wanted him to be a private person.
He should have made a pronouncement that he should never be addressed as 6th president of Zambia because he had become a private person.
That way, we would have stopped bothering his family.
Zambian logic is pathetic! What is this guy talking about? What law is used to denounce being a former somebody to nobody? What is this chap smoking?
In short you are confirming that ECL is a former head of State, weather the family likes it or not.
@Kimbanguist…. You are the one who is CONFUSED “That law to withdraw benefits” it was PUT THERE TO BAR any former president from coming into Active Politics. Chiluba is the one who introduced it.
LUNGU was a lawyer and understood this. BUT he got so upset and GOVERNMENT SCRUMBS .
It’s ONLY THAT HE WAS THE MOST CONFUSED PRESIDENT ZAMBIA ever produced.
He was a COWARD and his COWARDICE was appalling. He used to hide in CADRES….!!
The author is just okay but the readers are the ones who haven’t understood him specifically the Kimbanguist. The author’s argument is on the claims by the family that Lungu went to SA as a private citizen hence the family have the mandate to bury him privately without the stake of the government. According to the author, that notion from the Lungu family is wrong because regardless of what the government, HH or anybody did to Lungu, his status never changed, he still remained a former head of state and the sixth president of Zambia. The implication therefore is that whether Lungu’s benefits were suspended or withdrawn, whether the government denied him chance to go for medical treatment or whether he was being persecuted, his status never changed, he still remained as the sixth president of Zambia, a position he could not renounce because he already was the president of Zambia. If you are already the king, the Chief or president, you cannot renounce or abdicate your status because you accepted and you already have it. The renunciation or abdication is only possible before the coronation or swearing in and it has to be done by you, yourself and not by anyone else or on your behalf. That being the case, the family has no mandate to change Lungu’s status which he himself could not change, not even on his behalf can they do it posthumously. Therefore neither the family nor the government cannot have the monopoly over Lungu’s body, funeral and burial. Putting politics aside and all those trying to mislead the family, only these two sides (Lungu’s family and government) need to sit together and find an amicable and lasting solution to this matter because it’s un African and it’s not in anyones’s interest to keep someone’s body for weeks or months merely for political benefits. People should know that Lungu is the next of kin to the family and the former head of state to the government and the nation. That being the case, no one either the family or the government should be allowed to monopolize and politicize the matter. So my humble appeal to the Lungu family is to listen to the voice of reason and give chance to tangible discussions so that this matter is resolved once and for all. I therefore agree and support the logic of the Author, Lungu’s status remains the same and once this matter is finally resolved, each side will play its part so that at the end of the day Lungu is given a dignified befitting send off, as our friends in Nigeria are already geared and preparing to do.