Zambia Is a Nation Under Judgment: Reflections on the South African Appeal Court Ruling
By Dabwitso Moono
The insistence by the New Dawn government on a state funeral for President Edgar Chagwa Lungu reveals a troubling reality that goes far beyond protocol, ceremony, or public honour. It is a dark ruse that masks something deeper, more disturbing, and profoundly unsettling.
The dead cannot see gestures. They cannot be encouraged. They cannot be persuaded by gun salutes, uniforms, fly-pasts, or choreographed displays of false reverence. A colourful state funeral offers no benefit to Edgar Chagwa Lungu, now gone from this world. If love, respect, and dignity were not fully shown to him while he lived, it is meaningless and hollow to parade “angelic” gestures at his death.
What Zambia has witnessed instead is a state that abandoned restraint and humanity. Rather than facilitating a swift and dignified burial in accordance with mutually agreed funeral arrangements, the government chose confrontation. Using taxpayers’ money, our money, it launched a legal battle over a body in a foreign jurisdiction. This decision alone speaks volumes.
South Africa is not Zambia. It operates under a homegrown constitution. Its justice system is transparent, independent, and not subordinate to political power. A sitting president in South Africa can be taken to court. Judges are not intimidated by office. In that context, the Supreme Court of Appeal’s decision to grant the Lungu family leave to appeal was not surprising. It was expected.
State-sponsored body viewings, cannon salutes, and official pageantry will not assist Edgar Lungu’s soul in its journey. They will not restore dignity that was denied in life. The state disrespected him while he was alive, and it has continued that disrespect in death.
Edgar Lungu was a Christian. There are lessons the state could have learned from faith traditions that treat death with humility and urgency. Among Jews, burial is carried out swiftly, often within twenty-four hours. It is a biblical commandment. The body is never left alone. It is washed according to sacred law. Psalms are recited continuously. The dead are accompanied, guarded, honoured, and returned to the earth without delay. This practice is not foreign to Africa. It is deeply rooted in ancient African culture as well.
Mrs Esther Lungu and her family stand on firm moral and legal ground in protecting the body of President Edgar Chagwa Lungu. They have the right to refuse unnecessary body viewing. There is nothing strange or rebellious about this. What is strange is a government insisting on private ceremonies held away from the family, as if the primary custodians of the body must be sidelined. What logic permits a grieving family to be dragged to court in a foreign land over the remains of their husband and father?
What sane government fights a family over a corpse?
Zambia today feels like a nation stripped of spiritual sensitivity. Since 1964, no administration has displayed such moral darkness and hardness of heart. Zambia stands like an open book before Heaven. It is a nation under judgment.
History and scripture warn us that bodies are not neutral objects. In the book of Samuel, King Saul sought a medium to summon the spirit of the prophet Samuel. The act brought judgment upon him, and he soon perished in battle. If a buried body could be disturbed through dark spiritual means, how much more a body left unburied, lingering in limbo? Those with ears must hear. Those with eyes must see.
This crisis should awaken Zambia. It should compel reform. A future government must enact clear law granting unequivocal authority to the immediate family to decide how and where a deceased president is buried. We do not need presidential burial parks. Honour can be preserved through presidential libraries, through records, through learning, through truth.
Let the dead be buried with dignity. Let families grieve in peace. And let Zambia recover its conscience before it is too late.
Talking issues from informed point of view it’s a mockery to the grieving family and the nation . I wonder why those in can just burry their heads and give family it’s wishes
Any funeral in the world, regardless of the status of the deceased starts and ends with the family. The family is the final authority. This hate of a person even in his death is total madness and unnecessary.
Instead of sorting out loadshedding and the highest cost of living which themselves created, they are focused on wrong things, either amending a constitution which did not require amendments for now, or busy fighting the Lungu family. KK, Mwanawasa and Sata all warned us, we did not listen, we have to live with it
Zambias problems can only end in August 2026, unfortunately Mundubile and Kalaba will split the opposition vote. Then we will continue with the current self praise baggage which erroneously thinks that GDP growth translates into improvement in our welfare, when the GDP contribution from the mines is only felt in the countries where the mines externalise their monies to. But let us bury ECL please, this is now urgent
‘Under judgement?’
What law has Zambia broken and in whose court is she tried?
It looks to me that the judgement is a figment of your imagination arising from the cesspool of fertile emotional sensibilities. Put away your emotions and look at the cold facts of life. Lungu was never mistreated. He was treated according to the laws of Zambia. In fact, no other former President enjoyed the protections of the law after leaving office as Lungu did. He abused that privilege. As for whether Lungu was a Christian, leave that to God, because Lungu never publicly professed faith in a Saviour, but pombe.
By the way, who said that there will be body viewing?
This government has spent more time and resources on lungu burial and bill 7. If they had spent just half of that sorting out load shedding, paying farmers for maize supplied, employing health personnel, teachers etc, fixing infrastructure and social services then we would be a different country by now.