The ex-president of Zambia and the row unworthy on his body

“It comes home!” – An indelible sentence linked to English football fans – has now won money among some Zambians in the battle for what to do with former president Edgar Lungu.

The 68 -year -old man died two months ago in South Africa two months ago where he was treated for an uncompromising disease.

In the latest episode of what is now a full saga, a court of Pretoria ruled in favor of the Zambian government, claiming that in the public interest, the remains of Lungu can be repatriated and receive funerals from the state, against the wishes of the family.

The decision sparked celebrations among some supporters of the ruling party, who shared publications on Facebook with the sentence: “He returns home”, as if Zambia had won a trophy.

An unworthy response, perhaps, but it came to symbolize the division and the supporter that it has become.

For some, who are fed up with the row, the sorrow and the sorrow that came with the death of Lungu faded in feelings of fatigue.

But despite a multitude of more urgent economic problems, public discussions continue to be dominated by the benefits of the death of the former president, who led the country for six years from 2015.

The seeds of the controversy were sown in the quarrel between Lungu and his successor – the man who deeply beat him in the 2021 – Hakande Hichilema elections. But he has now rooted in a row prohibited from wild accusations of witchcraft.

When the judge in South Africa rendered his decision last week, the anger that followed by Lungu’s older sister was revealing.

Bertha Lungu broke out in a rage crisis, crying uncontrollable when she launched little recommendable words to the Attorney General of Zambia, Mulilo Kabesha, who was also present in court.

“Kabesha, Lungu is not your father’s son … He’s not Hakande’s son … It’s really painful. I don’t want to go to Zambia,” she cried like people, including her niece, Tasila Lungu, had trouble comforting her and covering her mouth.

The body has not yet been repatriated to Zambia because the Lungu family appeals to the decision of the South African judge – a case that should be heard on Friday.

All this was supposed to have been settled in June, when the family initially agreed that there could be state funerals in Zambia. But the plans were educated on a dispute on the role that President Hichilema would play.

One of his dying wishes was that Hichilema was not approaching his body.

The key to understanding the animosity was the more than 100 days than Hichilema, head of the opposition at the time, spent in detention in 2017, pending the trial for betrayal.

He was accused of having endangered the life of Lungu then president of the time after his procession refused to give way to the one who transported the head of state.

The accusations were only abandoned after the intervention of the Commonwealth Secretary General. It was one of the several times that Hichilema was arrested while he was in opposition.

In turn, the Lungus allegedly alleged a persecution under Hichilema. Tasila and the widow of the former president, Esther, continue to face accusations of corruption, which they deny.

Lungu’s family has sworn that they were ready to wait for the legal process as long as it is necessary to ensure that it receives a burial that they consider to be worthy, even if it means blocking the process, according to their spokesperson Makebi Zulu.

They insist that even if they were open to Lungu’s burial in Zambia, they want to honor his wishes that Hichilema will not be assisted by the event.

But the authorities are categorical that the former president should be granted funeral to follow by his successor and have received an appropriate shipment as a former president.

The government, through the Attorney General, even said that the Lungu could be buried without the involvement of the family.

“If they want to create a precedent, let them give us reasons why the current president should not approach the coffin. And who told them that he wanted to be close to the coffin, anyway?” He told the ZNBC state diffuser.

“We are ready as a government to chat with the family, we will never ignore the family unless the family comes out … But the family has the right to say:” We do not come, we are not part of it. “Then we will proceed and bury without them.”

There is no Zambian law that stipulates how former presidents must be buried.

Traditionally, all ex-leaders have received state funerals and buried at Embassy Park, which are specifically reserved for them.

Sishawa Sishawa, a Zambian historian and lecturer at the South African University of Stellenbosch, does not agree that Lungu could be buried without the involvement of his family.

“Such reckless declarations are culturally insensitive, undermined the government’s assertions that his actions are motivated by the desire to grant LUNGU a worthy burial and indicate that political considerations rather than the public interest are the main engines at stake,” he told the BBC.

“Hichilema’s failure to slow down the unruly conduct of his officials and his supporters has fed the public’s perception that the president approves such a conduct and, therefore, increased divisions.”

He argues that Hichilema said publicly that he would stay away from the funeral, Lungu would have been buried a long time ago.

Dr. Sishawa says that the determination of the authorities to take the body of Lungu of the mourning family – in the name of giving them worthy funeral – has not only aggravated political divisions but also fed the belief that the body can be sought “for occult reasons”, in a country where belief in witchcraft is largely sought after.

Nears Mumba, the leader of the Multipartite Democracy Movement, who is in a political alliance with Hichilema’s party, defended the president.

“What leads (the president) is not an obsession, but a deep and deep meaning of duty. Hakande Hichilema never gives up everything he pursues as long as he believes that he does the right thing,” wrote Mumba, who is also a pastor, wrote on his Facebook page.

“He fights, with a clear consciousness until the end, and he continues to refine his methods until he is right.”

The duration of this fight is not happening, but several episodes of the saga have not yet been written.

The Zambians can raise their shoulders and try to focus on other questions, but they will always be attracted by the debate on the question of whether the body should “go home”.