LUNGU FAMILY WANTS MONEY BACK AFTER FAILED SOUTH AFRICA FUNERAL: SAYS GOVERNMENT RUINED THEIR PLANS

LUNGU FAMILY WANTS MONEY BACK AFTER FAILED SOUTH AFRICA FUNERAL: SAYS GOVERNMENT RUINED THEIR PLANS

Just when we thought we had seen it all, the Lungu family is now in a South African court crying foul—because the Zambian government stopped them from burying former President Edgar Lungu in South Africa. Now they want the government to pay them back for all the funeral plans they made. Yes, seriously.

According to the family, they had already paid for a fancy funeral: funeral home, venue, transport, pastors, and even security. They say everything was in place to bury Mr. Lungu outside the country, far away from the soil he once ruled.

Then the Zambian government stepped in—on the same day the burial was supposed to happen—and said, “Nope. Bring the body home.” The family says this last-minute move brought them pain, confusion, and wasted their money. So now they’re in court asking for compensation.

But here’s the part that really makes you shake your head: they say that Esther Lungu, as the wife, has full legal power under South African law to decide where her husband should be buried. South African law? Since when did we start following foreign laws to bury a Zambian president?

They claim Mr. Lungu made it clear he didn’t want to be buried under President Hakainde Hichilema’s government. Apparently, being laid to rest in the country you led is now an insult.

So instead of working with government to give him a proper send-off as a former Head of State, they want to be refunded for planning a VIP burial in another country. What’s next—demanding refund for a cancelled afterparty?

Meanwhile, the Zambian government says, as it should, that the former President must be buried in Zambia. Simple. He was President of Zambia, not Sandton.

But the family insists: “We spent money. We were hurt. Pay us back.”

All this, in a country where ordinary families are struggling to even buy a coffin. Now we have to watch the former First Family fight in court because their five-star funeral didn’t go as planned.

This whole thing has stopped being sad. It’s embarrassing. If leading Zambia wasn’t enough honour for Mr. Lungu, maybe it’s time we asked what kind of leadership we were under in the first place.

And if refusing to be buried in your own country is the last message you want to leave behind, then maybe that says more about you than about the government.
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Zambian Angle