By Brian Matambo – Lusaka, Zambia

When President Hakainde Hichilema stood in Parliament yesterday, he lectured the nation that “court is the last resort” in resolving disputes. It was a lofty line, meant to project wisdom and restraint. But for the millions of Zambians who have watched the burial saga of the late President Edgar Lungu unfold, the statement rings hollow. It exposes not statesmanship but breathtaking hypocrisy.

COURTS AS THE FIRST RESORT
The record is clear. From the very moment the Lungu family announced their wish to bury their loved one in South Africa, the state rushed to court. On 25 June 2025, while mourners were gathered at Christ the King Cathedral in Johannesburg for what was to be the private burial of Edgar Lungu, the Zambian government, through Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha, filed for and obtained an urgent injunction from the Pretoria High Court.

The effect was devastating. A grieving widow, bent under the weight of personal loss, was met not with compassion, but with a barrage of legal papers. At the hour she was to put her husband to rest, the state dragged her into court, transforming mourning into litigation.

If HH believes court is the “last resort,” why did his government make it the first weapon? Why did they not let the widow bury her husband, and only afterward invoke the courts to seek repatriation or even exhumation if the state was so determined? The answer is clear: this was not about dignity, it was about control.

THE FALSE COVER OF “NEGOTIATIONS”
Throughout this saga, the President’s camp has pointed to “negotiations” with the Lungu family. Yet even while those talks were said to be underway, the government clung to the court process. At every stage, 25 June interim order, 8 August High Court ruling, 26 August Constitutional Court dismissal, and 8 September reserved judgment, the state pressed ahead in courtrooms, piling legal costs on the widow and stretching her grief across four agonizing months.

This duplicity shows that negotiations were never genuine. They were a cover while the real battle was waged in court.

A VINDICTIVE PATH
In many African cultures, funerals are sacred spaces where even political enemies lay down arms to let families mourn in peace. Hichilema had a choice. He could have respected that cultural and spiritual boundary, let the family proceed with burial in South Africa, and sought legal remedies afterward. Instead, he chose the vindictive path, blocking the widow at the graveyard gate, forcing her into court, and subjecting her to public humiliation.

Such conduct is not only politically cold; it is unchristian. To drag a widow through prolonged litigation, to deny her the closure of burial, and to weaponize courts against her in her deepest hour of pain, is to trample on both faith and humanity.

EXPOSED IN PARLIAMENT
When HH told Parliament that “court is the last resort,” he may have forgotten that the entire nation has seen his actions. They have seen him rush to court against a grieving family. They have seen him push case after case, appeal after appeal, while pretending that dialogue was alive. They have seen his government celebrate victories in courtrooms instead of showing humility at a funeral.

By invoking that line in Parliament, HH only underscored his insensitivity. He revealed a President who does not understand the cultural value of funerals, who does not respect the pain of a widow, and who has allowed personal vendetta to override compassion.

THE DANGER OF THIS BEHAVIOR
Zambians must see this for what it is: not simply a family dispute, but a portrait of leadership that confuses cruelty for firmness. If a President can strip a widow of her right to bury in peace, if he can turn a funeral into a courtroom battle, what hope is there that ordinary citizens will be spared the same treatment when their interests clash with the state?

In the end, HH’s words in Parliament cannot erase his deeds in Pretoria. Court was not his last resort, it was his first, his constant, and his preferred weapon. The Lungu family’s grief, prolonged for four months, is the price of that hypocrisy.