Hypocrisy at Its Peak: Why President Hichilema’s Attempt to Paint Edgar Lungu as a National Figure of National Importance Rings Hollow

Hypocrisy at Its Peak: Why President Hichilema’s Attempt to Paint Edgar Lungu as a National Figure of National Importance Rings Hollow- Thandiwe Ketiš Ngoma

By Thandiwe Ketiš Ngoma

In a stunning display of political doublespeak, President Hakainde Hichilema’s legal team has gone before the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to declare that former President Edgar Chagwa Lungu “deserves a State funeral” because he was “a national figure of national importance.” This is not just ironic; it is outright hypocrisy, and the Zambian people deserve better than this theatrical posturing from a government that for years failed to show even the slightest respect to the man in question.

Let us not pretend history started yesterday.

From the onset of his presidency, Hichilema made it his mission to humiliate and erase Edgar Lungu from the national conscience. His government actively harassed the former president, withdrew his security, blocked his travels, and openly mocked him through both official channels and party surrogates. He sent cadres to insult him publicly, to humiliate him before the very people he once led, and to paint him as a villain. Where was the “national importance” then? When President Hichilema allowed the systematic destruction of his predecessor’s image and dignity, did he forget that this same man had once been head of state?

What kind of twisted hypocrisy allows you to strip a man of all dignity in life only to demand that he be honored in death? That is not compassion. That is not justice. That is witchcraft, a macabre theater where dignity is weaponized for show after being denied in substance.

The current rhetoric from Hichilema’s government reeks of insincerity. State funerals are meant to celebrate legacies and recognize service to the nation. But how can the President pretend to be the guardian of national unity and respect when he effectively wished his predecessor dead by denying him access to timely medical treatment? Reports that President Lungu was blocked from seeking medical attention abroad, despite clear signs of failing health, are not only disturbing. They are cruel. And now the same man wants to preside over the funeral of someone whose death he may have accelerated through negligence or deliberate obstruction?

If there is any decency left in State House, President Hichilema should recuse himself from any role in the funeral of Edgar Chagwa Lungu. That would be the first truly respectful gesture he has ever offered toward his predecessor.

The legal circus surrounding the funeral arrangements only adds salt to the wound. That Hichilema’s administration took a grieving family to court and then sought permission to send a government official to “identify and authenticate” the body is an act of cold-hearted bureaucracy and stunning arrogance. This was never about honor. It was about control, about political positioning, not personal respect.

Leadership is not about burying your opponents with fanfare. It is about how you treat them when they stand before you, vulnerable, out of power, yet still human. On this test, President Hichilema has failed disgracefully. He cannot claim to value President Lungu now without also acknowledging his own role in trying to destroy him while he lived.

Zambians are not blind. We remember the public insults, the personal vendettas, the deliberate exclusions from national events, and the complete erasure of Lungu’s legacy from state narratives. We remember the harassment, the travel restrictions, and the thinly veiled threats against his family and allies. And now the same government that made it its mission to erase him wants to wrap his coffin in a flag and pretend to mourn?

This is not reconciliation. This is not dignity. This is political theater, a cynical performance staged by those who showed no mercy in life but now seek credit in death.

President Hichilema, if you truly believe in dignity, then you should have practiced it while Edgar Lungu could still hear your words and feel your actions. You cannot bury your hypocrisy under a state funeral. The Zambian people see it for what it is.