They didn’t want to bury Lungu; they wanted to use “Ichitumbi” for campaigns, claims Nevers
NEW NATION Party president who is also UPND Alliance member, Pastor Nevers Mumba says Zambians should vote for President Hakainde Hichilema if they want development to continue.
Pastor Mumba has alleged that the Tonse Alliance are carrying the body of late President Edgar Lungu on their shoulders and are using it to campaign and gain sympathy.
He cautions Zambians against voting for TONSE Alliance candidates claiming that if Zambians do, the spirit of the dead would hover over the country.
On June 5, the Sixth President of Zambia, Edgar Lungu died in a South African Hospital .
Following his death, his family made it public that they did not want incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema anywhere near the deceased former President’s remains, as per his wishes.
The government declared a national mourning, while negotiations on the funeral and burial of late President Lungu ensued.
An agreement on what would take place was arrived at and Lungu’s remains were scheduled for repatriation and subsequent burial.
However, the night before repatriation, a funeral programme alleged to have been drawn by the government leaked.
On the programme, items that were not agreed on, were spotted resulting in the family changing their mind on repatriation and planned burial, in Zambia.
Following this development and purported insistence that President Hichilema would preside over Lungu’s funeral, the family elected to want to bury their loved one in the Republic of South Africa.
Arrangements for burial in that Country were made, and some Zambians among them, politicians travelled to witness the burial of late President Edgar Lungu.
As mourners gathered at the Cathedral of Christ the King Catholic Church in Johannesburg, it was learned that the South African High Court had put a stop to the planned burial following Government of the Republic of Zambia’s challenge against the burial of Lungu’s remains in that Country.
The year long battle over who had legal rights to late President Edgar Lungu kept the late former Head of State in mortuary for a period extending beyond a year.
Recently, legal rights over Lungu’s remains were granted to the Lungu family who now are yet to decide where and when to bury the former President of the Republic of Zambia.
©TV Yatu | David Kashiki | July 2, 2026.