Africa-Press – Zambia. It has been 89 days since Zambia’s sixth President, Edgar Chagwa Lungu, died in South Africa on June 5, 2025.
And yet, his body remains frozen in legal limbo, locked in a South African court dispute. No burial. No closure. Just silence and sorrow.
I am happy the government and the family have agreed to negotiate.
For Esther Lungu, the widow, and her children, the pain is unspeakable. “We mourn in fragments,” a family friend whispered.
“Because how do you grieve someone who hasn’t been laid to rest?”
The anguish is not just personal—it’s national. Zambia weeps not only for a man, but for the dignity denied him in death.
Lungu was no ordinary citizen. He was the builder of roads, bridges, and hospitals. The man who once stood tall as Commander-in-Chief now lies cold, waiting for justice, waiting for peace. “Even in death, he is denied dignity,” said one clergy.
Legal experts like State Counsel John Sangwa have called out the vacuum: “There is no law in Zambia for state funerals. What we are seeing is not law—it is courtesy. And a courtesy can be rejected”.
Sangwa urges Zambia to emulate Tanzania, where presidential burials are governed by clear legal frameworks—designated cemeteries, defined roles, and respect for family wishes.
History offers grim parallels. In Greece, the Parthenon Marbles remain contested, torn between Athens and London—a cultural corpse never buried.
In Britain, the Elgin Marbles dispute has raged for centuries, unresolved, symbolic of colonial arrogance. Zambia must learn: without law, we improvise. And improvisation breeds injustice.
How long must Zambia wait to move on? “You cannot force your way into someone’s funeral,” Sangwa warns. “That’s not law. That’s intrusion”. The family’s grief must come first. The nation’s healing depends on it.
Ordinary Zambians, who once cheered Lungu’s motorcades, now whisper: Why? Why? Why? Why must a man who gave so much be treated so little?
They say, “Let us not bury Edgar Lungu in controversy. Let us bury him in honour. Let this be the moment Zambia grows up—legally, morally, spiritually.”
As one mourner put it: “He built roads. Now build the road to his peace.”
And may the ghost of Edgar Lungu finally rest—not in a courtroom, but in the soil of the country he loved, if his family agrees, if the government consents to family demands. It aint no crossword puzzle.
For More News And Analysis About Zambia Follow Africa-Press
