The Battle Over Lungu’s Final Rest
Credit: The People’s Brief
What started as a national mourning moment has unraveled into a standoff so raw that Zambia now risks remembering late former Edgar Chagwa Lungu more for this body battle than for his time in State House.
Family spokesperson Makebi Zulu’s latest line is blunt: President Hakainde Hichilema should not attend the burial when that day comes. The argument? This is not a Presidential funeral, it is a State funeral, and the President is not the State. It is a provocative statement, but not an isolated one. It is the clearest sign yet that the trust between the Lungus and the government is broken beyond polite words.
So What is This Really About?
At face value, it is about respect. The family believes the government has betrayed multiple promises, changed positions overnight and is determined to hijack the moment to appear magnanimous when relations have long soured. They point to an abandoned national mourning plan, contradictory statements and what they see as disrespect for the family’s right to lead the farewell.
But deeper under the surface, the politics are suffocating the family’s grief. In Patriotic Front circles, wild narratives swirl that the State wants to perform “rituals” if given full custody of the remains. Yet Zambia has buried two Presidents under the PF’s own watch. Michael Sata was laid to rest with full State care at Embassy Park. Kenneth Kaunda, whose family had its own difficult negotiation with the State, was buried at the same official shrine. There were no ritual stories then.
So what changed? Some of Lungu’s most loyal handlers see the coffin as the final chess piece. They fear the optics of Hichilema’s administration leading the burial while the PF remains politically battered and divided. Add unverified allegations of poisoning and conspiracy, and the paranoia multiplies.
A Nation Tired Of Funeral Politics
On June 5, many Zambians posted Lungu’s portraits as profile pictures. Some wept openly for a man they saw as fatherly despite his flaws. A month later, the country is drained. No public body viewings. No casket. No confirmed burial site. Just lawyers, affidavits and a family insisting the body will not be used to sanitise any leader’s image.
In a country that loves closure and symbolic unity, the fatigue is real. For ordinary citizens, these courtrooms and TV interviews do not heal. They only stretch grief until it feels transactional. Many are now asking: When does respect for the dead become overshadowed by political theatre for the living?
Where Does This Go?
Pretoria High Court will have the final word. The State’s amended notice is due. The family’s arguments are clear: Lungu’s body is not a trophy to score points with. But if the courts rule that the former president must return for burial under the official system, it will test whether the family will honour that verdict or stand its ground.
Whatever happens, the lesson is sobering. In death, Edgar Lungu has become a reminder of how fragile Zambia’s political trust truly is. This moment is no longer about the man who once ruled the country. It is about how the nation chooses to remember him: with dignity or with accusations, half-truths and ritual fear-mongering that leave a permanent stain.
This is becoming so unnecessary.