…How History will judge both the current Zambian and South African Presidents badly in future if Lungu is not buried in Zambia and set off a dramatic precedence forever….

We hope this matter of burying the former president of Zambia Dr Edgar Chagwa Lungu being put to rest in South Africa is not true but if it is going by the presence of the South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Mr Ronald Lamola at the funeral in Pretoria who represented the president of South Africa and delivered the condolences message sets off mixed understandings and reactions.

Yesterday 19th of June 2025 His Excellence Mr Hakainde Hichilema officially cancelled the national mourning in Zambia obviously the country can’t be in perpetual mourning beyond 14 days over the former president who should take 7 days. Only the sitting Republican President’s funeral takes 21 days. The timing was well recieved and the news of the cancellation was great to resume government and business operations that paralyzed Zambia with no uncertainty end in sight following the dramatic turn of events of the body of Dr Edgar Chagwa Lungu not coming when the nation prepared everything.

The country was thrown into a rude shock programs disturbed and what was supposed to be a sorrowful and empathetic mourning period turned dramatic in Zambia with anger and disdent with people questioning what’s going on and so forth.

At the heart of this drama are two key leaders namely the South African President His Excellence Mr Cyril Ramaphosa and his Zambian counterpart Mr Hakainde Hichilema. These are two leaders to explain what is going on because if the wishes or family voices mattered by now only late President Rupiah Banda would be resting at Embassy Park because the rest of the president’s had wills and wishes to be buried at places of their choices which every government in charge kept refusing.

Embassy Park is the official residence opposite Cabinet office in the capital City of Lusaka where all the former presidents of Zambia rests. Regardless of the family wishes the tradition and accepted resting place for the former heads of state remains there. The Kaunda family even went further to sue government to let it honor the wishes of their relative the First President of Zambia Dr Kenneth David Kaunda who wished to be buried in Chinsali alongside his wife Betty Kaunda the government presided by Lungu himself came strong to say he was not going to break the national custom.

What makes the difference between the Lungu family is the fact that he died in South Africa. Although two past president’s namely Dr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa who died in France and Late Micheal SATA who died in Egypt the family never behaved as the Lungu family have but the difference maybe is that these where serving presidents. Be that as it may Zambians in large numbers would love to bury their once a republican president right here in Zambia we believe this is way bigger than the family and going by national integrity, identity and future posterity. There is no excuse other than weakness from both Zambian and South African Presidents trying to divert the national custom of Zambia that has the potential to set off dramatic precedence in future and answers will be traced back to both South African President and Zambian President. Edgar Chagwa Lungu belonged to Zambia and whatever issues that he and the current president or government had was in Zambia not in South Africa and it’s unfair to the population of Zambia that both voted and did not vote for Lungu to be deprived of the complete national mourning by the family and the two presidents keeps watching the circus drag on without doing anything.

Whatever answers to these two questions are what matters is the future precedence that will unfold and drama to correct this error both leaders seems to be relaxed and do nothing to quell. Discussions have been made at different levels. The LUNGU family simply wants Zambian government dragged on political narrative against the citizens considering that next year Zambia goes to the polls.

South African President especially Mr Cyril Ramaphosa can not keep quiet and pretend this doesn’t concern him it’s the family and government that must talk when he can see the squabbles between the two sides not coming to terms. He has the power to eject the family out of his country and let Zambian squabbles be sorted right here in Zambia because that’s where they occured not in South Africa and both parties (Lungu family and government) are Zambians and how they sort their issues must not concern South Africa.

Lungu was not an ordinary person hence the stakes being so higher than normal and if the family can’t grasp this basic reality it’s for Zambians to decide on them not South Africa to keep sheltering them bringing political tension in the country.

Zambia a Republic can’t do more than what the president has done so far and made his position very clear that Edgar Chagwa Lungu was our 6th Republican President and must be buried in Zambia and not in any other country. This message underscores that there is no proper channel of communication between Zambia and South Africa. If capabilities and capacity is the issue, Zambian Defense Force are well capable of going to bring the body of their former Commander in Chief in a swift and clean manner and put this matter to an end.

We are saying this because we wonder if the two president’s are really talking about this issue which has sparked international interest and tension between both Zambians and South Africans and the idea of Edgar Chagwa Lungu being buried in South Africa does not seat well with Zambian population, is President Cyril Ramaphosa in agreement of this and he is ok with this? He must come out and tell us.