SA CASE HAS DAMAGED ZAMBIA’S IMAGE
ZAMBIANS are watching in disbelief how President Hakainde Hichilema is willfully creating serious divisions in the country and now the region, Dr Lawrence Mwelwa has said.
Dr Mwelwa cited the United Party for National Development government’s decision to sue late former president Edgar Lungu’s family and the South African government in the Pretoria High Court over the repatriation of the remains.
In an article titled ‘There Is More Dignity in Letting Go Than in Clinging to a Losing Fight’ Dr Mwelwa questioned whether there was any wisdom left in the UPND administration to continue fighting for the repatriation of Lungu’s remains to Zambia.
“The President, his Cabinet and the legal apparatus that engineered this sad affair must acknowledge the error, withdraw the case and restore dignity. If not for themselves, then for the grieving family and the nation watching in disbelief,” he said.
Dr Mwelwa, a Zambian writer, entrepreneur, academic and politician said every moment the State continued to litigate against a widow chipped away not only at public sympathy but also at the moral authority of the government itself.
“The government’s recent admission in a foreign court that it denied the former president access to medical care abroad based on the suspicion that he would use the trip for “political purposes” has stripped away the last shreds of legal and ethical justification,” Dr Mwelwa said.
He said government’s handling of Lungu’s funeral was a breach of human decency and a stain on Zambia’s image within the international community.
“What are we defending now? That a man we denied treatment should still be buried according to the rules of those who denied him? That the widow of a man we failed to protect should now kneel before us for permission to grieve and to bury? We must ask ourselves, what kind of justice is this?” Dr Mwelwa said.
Lungu died on June 5 in Pretoria, South Africa but his remains are yet to be buried because of a bitter standoff between the Zambian government over control of the funeral.
The Zambian government has sued Lungu’s widow, his children and others in the South Africa High Court seeking an order for the body to be handed over to the government for a state burial at home.
The Mast
Sometimes it is better to remain calm or quiet over governmental oaths and processes especially if don’t understand them fully. It’s also equally important to remain calm or quiet if you don’t know how governmental images are built and damaged. Which country doesn’t have societal norms, rules, regulations, and a constitution? Which nation or government hasn’t a set acceptable tradition, under unwritten laws? Note that national and international communities, are in most cases concerned with the rule of law, the defending and protecting of the national values, traditions, principles, norms, regulations, and the constitution( written and unwritten). And if unbiased analysis is carried out one will realize that the government, in particular, the president HH, has done the needful accordingly and no one with no corrupt mind can scorn him. His legal attempt, as one of the options to find time and pursuade the burial of the sixth president, ECL, back in his own country and places, makes HH a protector and defender of the said national and governmental norms. The ongoing legal issues, are a clear testimony that HH is a great leader of rules and of rule of law.
HH represents national unity, not personal opinion. Any funeral of a former Republican President, including Edgar Chagwa Lungu, is a state function, not a private family affair.That being the case, access and protocol at such an event are guided by State procedures, not by personal feelings or bitterness from any widow or relative. To insinuate that Esther Lungu , in her capacity as a widow, has the legal or moral right to chase away a sitting President from a State funeral is not only unconstitutional but undermines national decency and the dignity of public office. We are a country governed by the rule of law, not by whims of emotion or political grudges.
You call yourself a Dr. yet your writing does not make any sense. National unity should never be compromised by narrow political interests or misinformation.
Only in your empty head is Zambia embarrassed. Normal people in the world know that the GRZ is doing things according to law and through the law process. You will not manage to sway Zambian’s opinion of this Government because it is 100 times better than your defunct militia PF Government. You had your opportunity to Govern but squandered it with your own empty heads.
Which damage????
He writes like this as part of the clandestine plan to try in vain to discredit the president and his government. They are going nowhere.
Sorry, the Chabinga-Mwamba audio cannot be dismissed just like that. It sounds ugly. It sounds authentic.
Why is everyone blaming HH? It is the Lungu family that have brought disgrace to Zambia. Who and what are they to stand against the constitution of our country. HH is giving respect and honour to the former Head of state as per our constitution . It makes me weep to read all the bitterness and hate directed at the president. All out of jealousy of one Hakainde Hichilema. Stop the rot blame Esther for the mess. She could have allowed the buriel in Zambia and then sat and appealed audience with the president afterwards not using her husbands corpse as a bargaining tool. God bless his excellency Hichilema.
HH has done everything to ensure that Lungu’s body is buried in Zambia. If the family insists on burying in SouthAfrica, it’s better to let go. HH has a country to run.