By Thandiwe Ketiš Ngoma

Former President Edgar Chagwa Lungu died on 5 June 2025. He has been so “heavy” to lift that the nation is now beginning to ask questions. Perhaps, even too many questions. When a nation begins asking questions, it will uncover answers that those in power might prefer the public remain unaware of.

Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s death should have been the end of political conflict. It should have brought the matter to a silence. It should have closed a chapter. But instead, it has opened a whole new world of conflict. As some ably put it, to the UPND government, Edgar Lungu was easier to fight in life than in death.

It is now exactly 10 months since the 6th Republican President of Zambia passed away at a hospital in South Africa. Today, his remains are still the subject of litigation, subpoenas, court orders and public controversy. What should have been a solemn farewell has become a prolonged legal standoff – or perhaps a ritual hunt?

On 25 June 2025, the Lungu family planned to bury their father in South Africa. However, this burial was prevented. The Zambian Attorney General, Mr Kabesha Dimas Mulilo, SC, filed legal action in the Pretoria High Court, halting the Lungu family’s plans. The burial was supposed to bring closure, but instead ignited a new round of confrontation. The Hakainde Hichilema regime refused to back down from fighting a man they had belittled throughout his life, even in his death.

The family has maintained that the temporary burial arrangement in South Africa was driven by one word: dignity. They have said that efforts to return him home faltered because there were serious concerns that the clearly expressed wishes of the deceased would not be respected. It must be understood that Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s burial in South Africa is temporary. His grave there would be something of an amnesty grave. As and when there is sanity on the Zambian government side, Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s remains would then be repatriated and buried in line with his wishes and the wishes of his family. The human rights element here is unquestionable and undeniable.

According to the family, Edgar Chagwa Lungu had communicated specific preferences regarding his funeral. His widow has stated publicly that those wishes were known and should have been honoured. One such requirement was that Hakainde Hichilema should not preside over or attend Edgar Lungu’s funeral. Now this has been argued as an issue against protocol. To be honest, this would not be the first time in recent memory that a sitting head of state is denied an invitation to attend a funeral.

A quick check will show that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, American President Donald Trump, and his vice, JD Vance, have all been denied an invitation to high-profile funerals involving former heads of state, and or former vice presidents. In all these other cases, they did not insist and drag the deceased’s family into court.

You see, burial is sacred. It is not political theatre. But Hakainde Hichilema seems hell-bent on turning Edgar Lungu’s body into a token of political grandstanding. Instead of Lungu receiving the final act of honour, regardless of past rivalries, Hakainde Hichilema still wants to win a contest with a dead person. One would argue that what President Hakainde Hichilema has done is equivalent to suing the Lungu family for emotional damage for denying him an invitation to his political rival’s funeral.

And as it happens, the matter has degenerated from private grief into formal legal terrain.

We have now seen an official letter from legal representatives acting for members of the Lungu family, addressed to the South African Police Service, which has now added documented weight to the unfolding situation. The letter confirms that the funeral has been turned into an alleged criminal case. It states that five subpoenas have already been made and complied with, and that statements requested from the family have been duly delivered.

That detail matters. The aggression from the Hakainde Hichilema government to allegedly use South African police to access the body of Edgar Lungu should raise concern in all well-meaning Zambians. This has gone too far. Why would HH be so interested in Edgar Lungu’s body? Is it political expediency, or perhaps, as the whispers have been, could it be for rituals?

Whether for political grandstanding or for rituals, at some point, the truth will come out. This should be understood. But what is definitely clear is that HH does not mean well in this matter. And at the risk of sounding like we are activists, let HH be advised to leave the Lungu family alone and let Kabesha Mulilo withdraw the case from the Pretoria High Court, give up its earlier ruling and allow the widow and her family to bury their loved one. Otherwise, he will only be confirming that, truly, he is after the body for rituals.

Whereas the Lungu family has not refused engagement. They have not absconded from negotiation processes. They have cooperated “within the bounds of applicable legal directives.” The family has also gone ahead to deny the allegations underlying the criminal case and maintains that those allegations are unfounded and unsupported by credible evidence.

Again, that is not commentary. That is documented. In a letter from the law firm representing the Lungu Family, we read that a subpoena was issued to Two Mountains Funeral Services, directing that the body of the late former President be released into police custody.

Those who have followed this matter closely will recall that there are two extant High Court orders expressly directing that possession and custody of the body remain with the funeral service pending the finalisation of legal proceedings. And that leave to appeal has been granted by the Supreme Court of Appeal, meaning the appeal is alive and the operative court orders remain in force.

HH, Kabesha, or the corrupt south africa police being used in South Africa will know that in the absence of a judicial variation or further order authorising removal, no person or entity is legally permitted to act inconsistently with those directives. There will be strict compliance with existing court orders.

This aggression has created an environment in which public suspicion has intensified. Conversations are circulating, some cautious, some deeply emotional, questioning why the urgency to access the body persists if the legal process is ongoing and cooperation has been recorded.

Allegations are being discussed publicly that suggest motives beyond routine investigative procedure. More controversially, there are fears, rooted in long-standing cultural narratives, that the remains of powerful individuals can allegedly be used in rituals intended to harvest favour, influence or fortune. These beliefs exist in many societies across the world. They are not judicial facts. But we are Africans, and we know there is some reality to that.

These whispers are fueled by this aggressive hunt for the body of Edgar Lungu, probably for rituals.

HH needs to move and end this madness by picking a leaf from his colleagues, Cyril Ramaphosa, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and Donald Trump, who were able to take the refusal of their presence at national funerals gracefully.

Whereas ritual narratives are circulating fears, and are not proven findings. Edgar Chagwa Lungu is no longer a political rival. He is a deceased citizen awaiting final closure.

The dignity of the dead is the moral measure of the living. A nation that cannot allow burial without prolonged contest risks turning grief into spectacle and suspicion into narrative.

Until there is full clarity, legal clarity, procedural clarity, and moral clarity, the questions will persist. The fears, however uncomfortable, will continue to circulate. Because when a country finds itself arguing over a body long after death, it is no longer merely debating law. We are really in ritual territory now.