Former president Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s unresolved burial dispute took a harsher and more combustible turn on March 15, 2026, when governance advocate and UPND member Dennis Mutumba used a televised interview on Crown TV “The Hardball with Alfred Chimba” to level sweeping allegations against the late leader’s family, their spokesperson Makebi Zulu, and the handling of Lungu’s remains in South Africa.
In a discussion that repeatedly returned to one central question, Mutumba claimed the former president had already been buried secretly and said both Zambia and South Africa did not know where the body was. He also rejected claims that Lungu died of cancer, alleging instead that the former head of state was killed, though he offered no documentary proof during the interview and repeatedly framed his position as a demand for the body to be produced.
The interview stood out not only because of the gravity of the claims, but because Mutumba openly said he was prepared to be arrested, sued or jailed if he was proven wrong. Pressed by host Alfred Chimba on whether he was advancing facts or dangerous conspiracy theories, Mutumba insisted he was ready to defend his statements in court and said the only way to prove him false was to present Lungu’s body.
Chimba set the tone early by telling viewers the allegations were “strong” and describing them as claims that could shake political calm. He said Mutumba had alleged that the Lungu family had secretly buried the former president in defiance of a South African court process and that the official explanation surrounding Lungu’s death was false. From the outset, the programme treated the matter as one carrying major legal and national consequences.
Mutumba said his interest in the case arose from what he described as a prolonged and troubling standoff between the family and the Zambian state after Lungu’s death on June 5, 2025. He said the family had at one stage agreed to repatriate the remains, only for the matter to unravel. He argued that after months of court processes and failed negotiations, the continued refusal to return the body for burial had raised questions that, in his view, demanded a public answer.
Throughout the programme, Chimba repeatedly asked Mutumba for evidence. He wanted to know who his sources were, whether he had a single piece of proof that the body was no longer at a South African mortuary, and whether he was prepared to name the people he said were linked to Lungu’s death. Mutumba did not provide verifiable evidence on air. Instead, he pointed to public statements he said had been made by Makebi Zulu, arguing that those remarks, when pieced together, supported his suspicions.
Mutumba claimed Zulu knew far more than he had disclosed publicly because he was the family spokesperson and legal representative. He argued that a spokesperson could not credibly claim ignorance on matters of such sensitivity while continuing to address the nation on the family’s behalf. He said Zulu’s own public conduct, including political messaging and remarks attributed to him in the interview, had made him a central figure in the controversy rather than a distant messenger.
The strongest claim of the night came when Mutumba declared, more than once, that Lungu had already been buried secretly. He said those challenging him should simply produce the body if they wanted to disprove him. That refrain became the backbone of his argument: if the body still existed where the public had been led to believe it was being kept, then the matter could be settled by allowing it to be seen.
On the issue of cause of death, Mutumba dismissed the cancer explanation as false. Asked directly what had killed Lungu, he replied that the former president had been killed by “unknown people” and said more information was still being sought. Yet when Chimba pressed him to name those responsible or produce a medical record, Mutumba conceded he had not seen a certified death record himself. He said that was part of the reason he remained suspicious.
That exchange became one of the interview’s most revealing moments. Mutumba was emphatic in language, but thin on hard proof. Chimba repeatedly returned to that gap, challenging him on whether he was relying on facts or building a theory out of fragments, rumours and statements made by others. Mutumba responded that his conclusions were based on what had been said publicly by people close to the late president, what he called his own findings, and what he described as information from trusted contacts.
The interview also widened into politics. Mutumba suggested some people were seeking political mileage from Lungu’s death and repeatedly linked Makebi Zulu’s public posture to ambitions for future leadership. He questioned how anyone could move to inherit a political mantle before the late leader had been buried and portrayed that as culturally unacceptable and politically suspect. Those claims, too, were presented by him as personal conclusions rather than documented findings placed before viewers.
Chimba challenged him on whether his language amounted to defamation, whether he was traumatising the family, and whether he was exposing himself to legal action. Mutumba said he understood the risk and would apologise and resign from public advocacy if his claims were proved false. At the same time, he maintained that a defamation case would require the truth to be tested and said he was ready for that confrontation.
The programme then moved into phone calls, where viewers weighed in with mixed reactions. One caller said the family needed to be brought to the table to help resolve the issue. Another defended the view that a spokesperson must know what is happening if he speaks for the family. A third caller raised concerns about legal process and whether the Attorney General should be involved. Mutumba used the calls to restate his position that the central issue remained simple: produce the body.
Even as the interview drifted into election politics, mealie meal prices and the wider national climate ahead of the August 13, 2026 general election, the burial dispute remained the defining subject. Mutumba said the issue should not stop elections from taking place, but argued it was troubling for the country to move toward a national vote while the former president’s burial remained unresolved.
What the interview ultimately delivered was not proof, but escalation. It placed unverified allegations before a national audience in blunt, provocative language and attached names, motives and suspicions to one of the country’s most sensitive unresolved disputes. Chimba, to his credit during the exchange, kept returning to the same test: evidence.
That remains the hardest fact in the story. Mutumba made grave accusations. He said the family had secretly buried a former president. He said the official cause of death was false. He said key figures knew more than they had admitted. Yet in the interview itself, he did not produce documents, forensic records, court exhibits, mortuary confirmation or any publicly testable material to support those claims.
Mutumba also addressed criticism that he had been sponsored to make the claims. During the interview he said he was speaking in his personal capacity and rejected suggestions that he was a paid operative, explaining that he was both a governance advocate and a member and sympathiser of the UPND, but not acting on behalf of the party.
What the programme did show, plainly, is how far the Edgar Lungu burial impasse has moved from private grief into a fiercely contested public and political battleground, with accusation now overtaking restraint and the demand for proof hanging over every side involved.