By KBN TV
EDITORIAL INSIGHT – INSIDE THE ECL’S FAMILY – QUESTIONS THEY ARE ASKING THAT TRIGGERED A HARD DECISION
As the plane was getting ready to repatriate the remains of the former Head of State Edgar Chagwa Lungu and the South African Defence Forces were on hand to perform full military honours, the nation was shattered by the unexpected news that the family won’t bring the body today because “Government had subverted the funeral agreement.”
A few phone calls reveals the rationale that informed the Lungu family to make such a hard decision at such a crucial moment.
The family claims they are disturbed with information that only 20 slots have been reserved for family members to be accredited to access the airport grounds.
They’re asking if family members, his friends, close associates and party supporters won’t be at the airport to receive the remains, then who will do the honours?
The discomfort has been heightened when compared to similar past events involving the home coming of the remains for the late Levy Mwanawasa, Michael Sata, Chipolopolo fallen heroes of 1993, whose remains were received at the airport by multitudes without any restrictions regarding access to the airport.
This departure from the norm has troubled the family.
Then came the most difficult detail sneaked into the official programme for the body to be taken to a designated area within the airport for a Church service!
This was eye popping, Church service at the airport? Who is the presiding Bishop? who will be in attendance? what format will the this Church service take?
These are the questions running in the minds of family members who have not been availed with any such detail or consulted about the same.
The family still stands by its demand for President Hakainde Hichilema to take a low profile, but were taken aback after the released official programme indicated he would be the first to do body viewing.
They claim Government never consulted or involved them in drafting the final funeral programme.
Another concern with family members is that as at 18:00hrs last evening, no one from Cabinet office had been to the Chifwema funeral house to debrief the mourners about funeral arrangements except service men who were deployed to prepare the site.
Inside the UPND, this development is being seen as a serious snub that has embarrassed the Government with some party loyalists urging authorities to effect a mass crackdown on ECL family members and PF party sympathisers.
Not making sense..
Know what? Let them be. These chaps are now fooling around. They are even inconvenience the host country. If they want they can stay in South Africa with their corpse. The country can not come to a stand still because of these attention seekers. Let them remain with body for as long as they wish. We are now tired of their shenanigans. The Secretariat has run out of food
Managing a simple Ward Election is an issue for the MAN…
A Parliamentary Bye Election is a big issue for the MAN
Managing Constitutional Review is total Chaos for the MAN!
Managing a funeral for an ex President is too big for the MAN.
Can the MAN manage a General and Presidential Election??
Show me the color of Grand Incompetence, and I will point at the MAN!
Pan yopa ko. Who do you want him to do when pf and the family are not cooperating? You want him to bulldoze a funeral. The government is there to help the family. We have pf who wants to impose their own evil decisions unilaterally forgetting that this is a national funeral
Fake Bemba Musonda, koma chakubaba hahahaha.
Just accept that even in death, ECL remains much smarter than Hakainde.
Ati imingalato, hahahaha, kanshi likula umulumendo. Azi nyunya pawaaahahaha.
VOTE FOR CHANGE IN 2026.
Kkkkkkkkk! Yaba! Ask your doctor to increase the dose. The medication you’re taking now is not working and your mentals are breaking down.
This could have been avoided by simply communicating with each other.
There is lots room for reasonable give and take within the agreement that was brokered earlier. This is unfortunate.
The culture of keeping remains of dead husbands unburied for a longer time than expected is growing in Zambia. Recently the nation came to learn that the remains of a certain dead husband had been kept for about two years. And this time, even we don’t know the day, month or year when the remains of ECL will be brought back to Zambia for barial
It appears the PF want to prolong their relevance in the last days of the former president’s remains being above the surface of the earth.
It is either they want to do something illegal or they want to provoke the government to an extent that they will have a confrontation with the it, in order to find something against HH.
The thing is, HH is above par and has beaten them to their own game.
But what is clear is that the government has the right to prevail if it came to the worst. It is becoming unAfrican and rather too clumsy for any learned person to understand or indeed tolerate.
For a lawyer, it is more money in the pocket for a lawyer to prolong the process.
The death of Lungu should not divide Zambians. May the government withdraw all support to this funeral. Zambia will still live with or without Lungu. Don’t hold the country at ransom.Lungu is not the first person to die. Jesus died. Who is Lungu? It’s laughable naba lawyer of these days.
A very sad development. Maybe just let the family decide what they want, away from the politics. That is why there is so much confusion. It is straight and simple: There are people who want to capitalize upon this funeral for their own agenda. Listen to them very carefully when they speak, and read between the lines.
I think this is a ploy to humiliate HH and the Zambian govt in the eyes of the international community. It may as well be that the said report by the UN about human rights abuses in Zambia, which was released yesterday has somehow given the family some leverage, to add their own grief to the report. My word of advise to the family is, bring back ECL’s remains while the nation is still coming to terms with the shock of his passing. Leave it too late, people will have recovered enough to move on, and then the whole burden will be for you and the cadres to bear. Whatever the plans or feelings from the family are, this impasse has the potential to become an own goal. The whole issue here, as I see it, is about keeping HH from coming anywhere near the body of the late, nothing else. As in life and so in death…..
Why does Hakainde want to get close to the body? Why???????
VOTE FOR CHANGE IN 2026.
Let them not come back group of thugs what kind of rubbish is this embarrassing the whole country just because of politics.Death and politics Don’t mix this is wickedness from PF.
We are tired with the lungu family disorganisation, back by PF politic manoeuvres.
They can keep lungus remains, we want to move past this drama.
Twanaka
Don’t forget we are talking about a thief here yet the amount of importance and respect they were getting from government was more than necessary. They are more interested in creating a circus than in burying him.