Africa-Press – Zambia. Patriotic Front Presidential Candidate and lawyer to the late Edgar Chagwa Lungu has launched a constitutional assault on President Hakainde Hichilema, filing a petition in the Constitutional Court that directly challenges the President’s conduct in the handling of Constitutional Amendment Bill Number Seven of 2025.
The petition, filed this morning, 5 December 2025, names the Attorney General as the respondent in his capacity as the legal representative of President Hichilema and the Government. This action comes exactly six months after former President Lungu died in Pretoria, and at a time when his burial remains frozen by yet another court process initiated by the Hichilema administration in South Africa.
But in today’s twist, Makebi Zulu, the Lungu Family’s spokesperson, has gone on the offensive.
This time, Makebi Zulu is suing President Hichilema for allegedly violating the Constitution by attempting to revive a legislative instrument that no longer exists in law. Bill 7, he argues, died the moment the Constitutional Court delivered its ruling in Munir Zulu and Celestine Mukandila v Attorney General, a judgment that declared the Bill’s initiation process unconstitutional, improperly consulted, and fundamentally void.
In legal terms, Bill 7 was not left on life support. It was buried.
Makebi Zulu’s petition accuses the Hichilema administration of attempting to resurrect the dead Bill through procedural shortcuts and political force, in defiance of the Court’s earlier ruling. The filing describes the manoeuvre as a direct challenge to the judiciary’s authority and a breach of multiple constitutional provisions, including Articles 1, 8, 9, 61, 90, 91, 92 and 79.
He seeks a declaration that Bill 7 is legally null and void, and an order restraining Parliament, the Speaker, and all government officers from processing or debating it in any form. Makebi Zulu insist that any attempt to amend the Constitution must begin afresh, with wide, genuine, and effective public consultation, not the rushed 20-day exercise he describes as a “sham masquerading as consultation.”
This case now places the constitutional conduct of the sitting President under direct judicial scrutiny. It also intensifies the already, volatile political atmosphere surrounding the unresolved burial of former President Lungu and the fractures within Zambia’s governance landscape.
Six months after Lungu’s passing, Zambia enters a new and defining legal chapter: Can a President ignore a Constitutional Court judgment and attempt to revive a Bill the law has already declared dead?
The answer will shape not just Bill 7, but the nation’s constitutional order itself.
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