LAURA MITI CALLS FOR END TO NATIONAL MOURNING AS NKHOMA OPPOSES BURYING ECL IN SOUTH AFRICA
By: Sun FM TV Reporter
Civil rights activist Laura Miti has urged the government to lift the ongoing national mourning period for the late former President Edgar Lungu, citing the family’s decision to suspend the repatriation and burial process.
Ms Miti argued that continuing with national mourning in the absence of a finalized funeral plan is premature.
She advised that a day of mourning should only be declared once consensus is reached between the government and the Lungu family.
Her comments follow allegations from the Lungu family accusing government of violating prior funeral arrangements, resulting in a standoff over the former president’s final rites.
Meanwhile, youth advocate Daniel Nkhoma has dismissed suggestions that the late president be buried in South Africa, calling the proposal unfortunate and inappropriate.
Late Lungu’s family apparently had accepted military honours the South African defence force had agreed to extend to him. This contradicts the family’s insistence that the body of the late 6th president be returned to Zambia as a private citizen because state military honours are not accorded to private citizens. Perhaps I have jumped the gun and Makebi Zulu had told the South African government to command its military not to accord military honours to late Lungu.
There was a video on social media of a plane and military personnel in uniform and a red carpet rolled at a South African airport but no casket of ECL for a military honours. Now, what are the people holding on to the body going to do with it if they cannot bury in South Africa?