RESPONSE TO THE STATEMENT BY HON. JACK J. MWIIMBU, MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS AND INTERNAL SECURITY
LUSAKA, 9 JUNE 2025
By Thandiwe Ketis Ngoma
It is with a deep sense of disappointment and dismay that I respond to the press statement issued by the Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security, Hon. Jack J. Mwiimbu, regarding the passing of our late former President, His Excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu
While the words of mourning and unity may appear noble on paper, they are nothing but a hollow display of hypocrisy coming from a government and a minister who stood by in silence, or worse, in complicity, as our former Head of State was subjected to humiliation, harassment, and total disregard.
Mr. Mwiimbu, where was your conscience when cadres, under the protection of your police, insulted and mocked President Lungu as he escorted his wife, Madam Esther Lungu, to the Drug Enforcement Commission? You said nothing. You did nothing. Your silence was deafening. Under your ministry, law enforcement officers stood idly by as the dignity of a former President was desecrated.
Where was your honour when one of your police officers chased former President Lungu from a Catholic bishop’s office in Kabwe during a peaceful and respectful courtesy call? That moment was not merely an insult; it was a calculated effort to publicly shame a man who once held the highest office in our land. And yet today, you speak to the nation about honour and respect.
Let us not forget that the cruelty went even deeper.
Your government denied President Lungu permission to travel for his routine medical reviews in South Africa. Not once. Not twice. But on three separate occasions. These were not leisure trips. They were essential medical visits. To deny a former Head of State access to medical care, fully aware of the consequences, was not only cruel—it was inhumane. How heartless must one be to place politics above someone’s health and well-being?
And now, you ask the nation to mourn with you.
Mr. Mwiimbu, it was under your leadership that President Lungu became the target of relentless political vengeance. He was hounded, monitored, restricted, insulted, and dehumanized. Even his right to move freely in the country he once led was turned into a political battleground. What he endured was state-sponsored persecution, and your ministry was at the centre of it.
Perhaps most disturbingly of all, you stripped him of his security. A man who once served as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces was left to walk without protection like an ordinary citizen. You deliberately exposed him to danger, despite knowing the risks. You failed to accord him the security, respect, and recognition that every former Head of State rightfully deserves.
Today, you speak of love, compassion, and unity. But where were these values when they truly mattered—when President Lungu was alive and being publicly ridiculed? You now speak of national healing, but healing does not begin with polished press statements. Healing begins with truth, accountability, and justice.
The UPND government failed to take care of President Edgar Chagwa Lungu. That is an undeniable fact. You failed to protect him. You failed to respect him. You failed to honour him. Now, in his death, you attempt to wrap yourselves in the language of unity and virtue.
Let it be clear: we will not allow the memory of President Lungu to be rewritten by those who disrespected and persecuted him in life. His legacy is not yours to sanitize. His suffering is not yours to erase.
Today, we mourn, but not in silence. We mourn with voices lifted in truth and with the moral clarity that this nation so urgently needs. The people of Zambia must know what was done to him, and history must never forget.
Let us honour President Edgar Chagwa Lungu not only in death, but in truth.
Madam, just keep quiet and mourn the former president with dignity together with all loving Zambians. It doesn’t matter whether UPND government respected, honored, protected Lungu or not, he still remained as the former president or the sixth president of Zambia and that is the person we are mourning now.
If HH was a bad person as you try to portray him, just after winning the 2021 general elections, the first thing he should have done was to arrest Lungu, but he did not do that despite what Lungu did to him. Lungu ransacked Community house, locked HH in Mukobeko but when he came out, he never revenged or hoboured any bad ills against Lungu. When he was released from Mukobeko, he openly said that; I have forgiven them because if I don’t forgive them, there will be no difference between me and them. Unfortunately, you are not seeing that difference between HH and late ECL. After winning the presidency, HH had to swear that he will never persecute, harass or arrest Lungu, he would look after him well and safely. There was no travel ban for Lungu and no one tempered with his passport. Instead it was ECL who stopped RB from traveling to South Africa for medical check up when he Home Affairs Minister. HH is innocent and it’s sin to bear false witness against your brother. As if it’s not enough, ati ECL might have been poisoned, what a rubbish imaginary story? Politics needs mature and sober people and not hallucinatory ones like some of you.
And no one stripped Lungu of security, he did it himself because the security he was enjoying was for a former president and other former presidents like KK and R B enjoyed the same security until the time of their demise. You should know that providing security and other associated benefits to a former head of State who has not left or who has come back to active politics is a misapplication of resources and services and above all, it’s unconstitutional.