Mundubile, Makebi Hounded Out; Police Making HH Unpopular, Says Sumaili

You can imagine the police coming to the hotel, surrounding the hotel. Some were carrying guns, terrorising everybody.

Former Minister of National Guidance and Religious Affairs Reverend Godfridah Sumaili has delivered a scathing account of what she says unfolded in Chipata after the burial of Paramount Chief Mpezeni IV, accusing police of turning a solemn period of mourning into a security operation that traumatised mourners, alarmed foreign visitors and left opposition leaders feeling hunted.

Speaking in a recorded interview, Reverend Sumaili said she personally witnessed events that shook her to the core, moments she described as painful, shocking and unlike anything she had previously experienced in Zambia.

“What I have seen today is very painful. It is traumatising. I have never experienced such a thing,” she said.

According to Reverend Sumaili, Tonse Alliance presidential candidate Brian Mundubile, his running mate Makebi Zulu and members of their entourage had travelled to Eastern Province to join thousands of mourners paying their final respects to the late Ngoni monarch. They came to grieve. What they got, she alleged, was something else entirely.

“They came to mourn and to put to rest King Mpezeni. To treat them like that is very unfortunate,” she said.

Reverend Sumaili alleged that police officers surrounded the hotel where the opposition leaders were staying, creating fear among guests, mourners and visitors who had made the journey from across Zambia and neighbouring countries to attend the funeral. The image she painted was one of guns, tension and a hotel turned into something resembling a siege.

“You can imagine the police coming to the hotel, surrounding the hotel. Some were carrying guns, terrorising everybody,” she said.

The former minister went further, alleging that officers moved through the hotel room by room, ordering occupants to pack up and get out.

“They came room to room. They said, ‘You have to leave. You have to leave.’ They pushed them out and escorted them out,” she claimed.

What made the situation feel even more jarring, she said, was the timing. The incident unfolded while foreign visitors, traditional leaders and delegations from neighbouring countries were still in Chipata, still present for the mourning proceedings that follow a burial of this significance.

“Imagine people who have come from different countries and then you behave in such a way,” Reverend Sumaili said.

She questioned why any police action could not simply have waited until the mourning period had run its course, arguing that even if the opposition leaders had done something wrong, there was a time and a place to deal with it and this was neither.

“If there is something they have done wrong, report it and wait until the mourning period passes. What they have done is very shameful,” she said.

During the same programme, the host alleged that the operation was led by Deputy Inspector General of Police Fred Hamaamba. According to the host, police officers surrounded and barricaded the Protea Hotel before removing Brian Mundubile, Makebi Zulu and members of their entourage from the premises. The host further alleged that five members of the opposition leaders’ security team had been detained earlier, before the larger operation got underway.

According to the account presented during the broadcast, police officers stated that members of the Mundubile entourage were being sought by law enforcement authorities in Lusaka, a claim cited as part of the justification for the operation at the hotel.

The host also alleged that police communications captured during the incident included calls for “long buttons” to be brought against a journalist who was livestreaming events as they unfolded. That allegation was not independently verified during the broadcast.

The programme heard further claims that the operation took place in full view of foreign delegations attending the funeral, including representatives linked to the Zulu Royal House in South Africa as well as visitors from Malawi and Mozambique. The host alleged that some members of those delegations were staying at the same hotel and watched as police officers moved through the premises searching for Makebi Zulu and his team.

The allegations have not been independently verified.

Reverend Sumaili warned that incidents of this nature carry a political cost, that scenes like these risk damaging the public image of government and generating sympathy for the very people being targeted.

“The people of Zambia are watching. The people of Zambia are hearing the cries of our leaders,” she said.

Without directly accusing President Hakainde Hichilema of authorising the operation, she made the point clearly: when state institutions behave in a certain way, it is the government that wears the consequences. Actions taken in the name of authority do not exist in a political vacuum.

Her concern was echoed by a caller from Mongu, who drew a pointed comparison with an incident involving then opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema during the Kuomboka ceremony in Western Province. The caller argued that authorities under former President Edgar Lungu chose not to move against Hichilema in the middle of that traditional ceremony, not out of weakness, but out of respect for the Litunga, the proceedings and the thousands of people gathered for a culturally sacred event. Enforcement, the caller said, was deliberately held back until after the occasion had concluded.

The caller questioned why the same restraint was allegedly not shown during the mourning period for Paramount Chief Mpezeni IV, arguing that a royal funeral attended by traditional leaders, international visitors and foreign dignitaries deserved no less consideration.

“If there is something wrong that has been done, report it and wait until the mourning period is over,” the caller said.

Several other participants in the programme raised similar concerns, expressing worry about what image was being projected to regional visitors and arguing that the funeral of Paramount Chief Mpezeni IV should have remained a moment of mourning — not one overshadowed by political confrontation.

Throughout the discussion, Reverend Sumaili repeatedly appealed for prayers, calm and national unity, speaking with visible emotion about opposition leaders she said had been forced to leave Chipata under deeply troubling circumstances.

“We are only one Zambia. If we mess up this country, we will have nowhere to go. We do not want to see our country destroyed,” she said.

At the time of the broadcast, no official police response to any of the allegations aired by Reverend Sumaili, the programme host or callers had been presented during the programme.

The events occurred during mourning activities following the burial of Paramount Chief Mpezeni IV a ceremony that had drawn government officials, opposition politicians, traditional leaders and international delegations from across Southern Africa to the heart of Eastern Province.