By Magret Mwanza
There is a dangerous and intellectually dishonest narrative emerging in the wake of the funeral arrangements for Edgar Chagwa Lungu. It is a narrative carefully crafted to shift blame onto Hakainde Hichilema while disguising what are clearly political calculations masquerading as “family wishes.”
Let us be clear from the outset. This is not about dignity. This is not about grief. And it is certainly not about protocol. This is about control, optics, and an attempt to weaponise a national moment for narrow political ends.
The argument being advanced, that the Lungu family has not rejected a state funeral but merely the presence of President Hichilema, is not only flawed. It is fundamentally contradictory. A state funeral is not a private ceremony. It is a sovereign act of the Republic.
You cannot claim the full honours, the military precision, the national resources, and the symbolic weight of a state funeral while simultaneously attempting to exclude the embodiment of that very State. That is not how governance works. That is not how protocol functions. That is not how nations conduct themselves.
A state funeral without the sitting Head of State is not a state funeral in its full constitutional and symbolic sense. It becomes a compromised ceremony, diluted by political bargaining and stripped of its national character. Those pushing this narrative must answer a simple question. What exactly is being protected by excluding the sitting President?
If the answer is “the wishes of the deceased,” then we must also ask whether those alleged wishes are being selectively interpreted and politically deployed. Because in any functioning democracy, the death of a former Head of State transcends personal preferences. It becomes a matter of national importance governed by law, tradition, and institutional respect.
There is no credible precedent where a former President is accorded full state honours while the sitting President is deliberately barred. Such a position is not only irregular. It is confrontational. What we are witnessing is an attempt to separate governance from politics only when it is convenient. That is intellectual dishonesty of the highest order.
Governance does not operate in fragments. The office of the President is not a ceremonial inconvenience that can be switched on and off depending on personal comfort. Whether one likes it or not, President Hakainde Hichilema is the duly elected Head of State of Zambia. His presence at a state funeral is not about personality. It is about the continuity of the Republic.
To suggest that he should be excluded while the State still carries the burden of honouring his predecessor is to demand benefits without accepting institutional reality.That is not compromise. That is entitlement.
It is also important to expose the underlying motive behind this posture. By creating a public standoff over the President’s presence, certain actors are deliberately manufacturing a narrative of insensitivity and conflict. It is a political trap designed to portray the government as uncompromising, regardless of the concessions already on the table.
This is not new in Zambian politics. Moments of national mourning have often been exploited for political mileage. What is new, however, is the extent to which institutional norms are being challenged in the process. Let us separate emotion from principle.
Respecting the dead is important. But so is respecting the State.The two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they must coexist. President Hichilema’s offer of a state funeral is not an act of political opportunism. It is a constitutional duty and a gesture of national unity. It acknowledges that regardless of political differences, Edgar Chagwa Lungu once held the highest office in the land and deserves to be honoured accordingly. But honour cannot be conditional on the exclusion of the very office that confers it.This is where the current argument collapses under its own weight.
Those blaming President Hichilema for delays or tension must confront an uncomfortable truth. The impasse is not being driven by the State’s refusal to honour the former President. It is being driven by an insistence to redefine what a state funeral should look like, in a way that undermines established governance norms. That is the real issue.
Zambia must be careful not to set a precedent where national ceremonies are dictated by political preferences rather than institutional frameworks. Today it may be about one President. Tomorrow it may be about the erosion of the State itself. Leadership, at its core, is about rising above personal and political differences in moments that demand national unity. This is one such moment.
The path forward is not to dilute the State. It is to respect it fully.If we are to honour the legacy of Edgar Chagwa Lungu, then we must do so in a manner that reflects the dignity of the office he once held. And that dignity is inseparable from the presence of the current custodian of that office. Anything less is not respect. It is revisionism disguised as compassion.
The Politics of Death Must Not Override the Authority of the State.