‘Body viewing not done in morgue’ – Sinkamba
By Tony Nkhoma
Body viewing is not done in the mortuary unless you want to perform rituals, Green Party (GP) president Peter Sinkamba has told the government over its insistence on seeing the body of former president Edgar Lungu.
Sinkamba said the United Party for National Development (UPND) administration would forever be haunted by late Lungu’s soul because of the way it ill-treated him in his life and now in death.
He said in a statement yesterday the government’s insistence on seeing the body was nothing but a ritual. Sinkamba said it was clear that some senior people in the UPND government were haunted by the death of Lungu.
“Because when someone dies as a patient in a hospital, if you arrive after the body has been certified and already taken to the mortuary, you have to wait until the time for body viewing at the church or cemetery,” he said.
Sinkamba said someone influential within the government was merely suffering from a mental condition of paranoia.
“Initially, I thought someone influential within the government was merely suffering from a mental condition of paranoia [paranoid schizophrenia]. Not anymore,” he said.
Sinkamba said the obsession by the government over the late president’s body was beyond imagination.
“Why is the UPND government so obsessed and desperate to see the body of late president Lungu that is in the mortuary while the issue surrounding his burial place is still under litigation in the courts of law?” he wondered.
Sinkamba said the behaviour of the government was much more ritualistic than mere paranoia.
“The latest demand by the government, through its lawyers in South Africa, demanding to see the body urgently and threatening further litigation beats any reasonable person’s imagination,” he said.
Sinkamba said it did not matter whether Lungu was a relative or not; there was no way one could go to the mortuary to demand the body specifically for body viewing.
“Even those of us who, not only friends but also worked with him in Tonse Alliance did not demand to see his body in the mortuary when we went for burial in June. Rather, we waited for church service to take place at the cathedral, and anticipated viewing the body from there per our Zambian tradition and religious practices,” he said.
Sinkamba said the UPND’s conduct was strange.
“Probably they are not sleeping, hence the desperation and obsession to see the body urgently. Those of us who are not haunted are ready to view the body at church,” he said.
Sinkamba said it did not matter how long it would take before the body viewing took place.
The best those in leadership should have done was to make peace with Lungu before his death.
“I repeatedly cautioned senior government officials that if the worst happened to Lungu, and he died in South Africa, it would be very difficult for the government to be involved in the funeral,” Sinkamba said.
He urged the leadership not to allow such ritualistic acts to continue.
“… at the end of the day, it is not those fronting the obsession that will suffer ridicule, but the President himself. The assumption is that they are doing these rituals in his name,” Sinkamba said.
Lungu died in Pretoria, South Africa, in June and is yet to be buried.
His family and the Zambian government have been locked in a bitter legal war over his burial.
