Africa-Press – Zambia. Dr. Sishuwa Sishuwa’s latest piece, “The Missed Opportunity in Edgar Lungu’s Burial”, is another tired example of his obsession with attacking President Hakainde Hichilema.
Instead of offering sober analysis, Sishuwa twists facts, ignores the law, and peddles propaganda disguised as academic commentary. But Zambians are not blind , they can see the truth.
HH acted with dignity, law, and precedent on his side, while Sishuwa’s pen dripped with bitterness and political bias.
Let us set the record straight.It is a notorious fact that the burial of a former Head of State in Zambia is not a family affair , it is a constitutional and state matter.
Article 92 of the Constitution gives the President the executive responsibility to safeguard the Republic’s dignity. Every former president , from Kaunda to Mwanawasa to Sata , RB, has been accorded a state funeral on Zambian soil.
Edgar Lungu was not an exception, and HH had both the duty and the obligation to ensure that precedent was followed. Allowing the Lungu family to bury him secretly in South Africa would have set a dangerous precedent, degrading the Office of President into a private family decision. Hakainde Hichilema acted in defence of the nation, not for himself.
Sishuwa deliberately portrays HH’s decision as “heartless,” very wrong of him, but nothing could be further from the truth.
In reality, it was an act of compassion toward Zambia’s identity. What dignity would Zambia retain if her sixth President, a man who once held the highest office in the land, was buried in foreign soil, like an exile or a dishonoured fugitive? HH stopped that insult. He ensured Edgar Lungu has to be laid to rest with full honours, in his homeland, where his memory belongs. Even when Lungu himself once jailed him on false treason charges, Hakainde Hichilema rose above pettiness. That is not cruelty; that is statesmanship.
The truth Sishuwa hides is that it was the Lungu family, not HH, who politicised the funeral. By seeking to block the sitting President and drag the matter across borders, they sought to humiliate the Republic itself. No responsible Head of State would allow such a circus. HH stood firm, not for personal pride, but for the dignity of the Presidency as an institution. Sishuwa’s attempt to paint this defence of constitutional order as “insensitivity” exposes him not as a scholar, and politically dishonest character, also as a political activist using the pen as a weapon of propaganda.
And here lies Sishuwa’s hypocrisy. He cries about “insults” on social media today, but where was his outrage when PF cadres beat up citizens, stormed radio stations, and even killed political opponents? Where was his moral pen when Hakainde Hichilema himself was jailed in Mukobeko Prison under false treason charges? Silent. Conveniently silent.
Today, under HH, Sishuwa enjoys the freedom to write venom without fear of arrest, the very freedom HH has restored by upholding the rule of law. To accuse HH of authoritarianism while benefiting from his tolerance is not only dishonest; it is academic fraud.
This is not the first time Sishuwa has revealed his bias. For years, he has sharpened his pen not as a neutral analyst, but as a bitter critic of HH. He praised Edgar Lungu’s regime when it oppressed HH, media houses and other opposition parties, then suddenly discovered his “voice” only after Zambians voted for change.
He pretends to be a voice of the people, yet he consistently undermines the people’s choice. His writings expose him as an intellectual opportunist who thrives on negativity but never offers constructive solutions.
While Sishuwa wastes ink on funeral gossip, HH is making history. Debt restructuring, record mining expansion, free education, unprecedented Constituency Development Fund, job creation, and the restoration of freedoms — these are the real markers of leadership. HH is building Zambia’s future while Sishuwa clings to bitterness from the past. The truth is clear: Sishuwa’s article will be forgotten as partisan noise, but HH’s legacy will stand as the restoration of Zambia’s dignity, sovereignty, and democratic order
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