Church, chiefs, CSOs urged to help bury Lungu
By Tony Nkhoma
THE silence by the Church, civil society organisations and traditional leaders in the country to protect the widow and children of the former president Edgar Lungu is troubling and disappointing, Patriotic Front (PF) and Tonse Alliance Copperbelt Province youths have said.
Provincial youth information and publicity secretary Humphrey Kabwe said the silence was too loud.
In an interview with The Mast, Kabwe said the impasse surrounding former president Lungu’s burial should be resolved without any further delays.
Four months have passed since the former president died in South Africa, but he is yet to be put to rest.
Kabwe said the impasse should not have dragged this far.
“Your loud silence and failure to protect the widow and orphans is disappointing and troubling to many Zambians. The Church and the traditional leadership have betrayed the people of Zambia, and if Lungu were still alive he would have seen how much betrayal surrounded his funeral. Thus the need for you to step up and defend the widow by publicly telling president Hakainde Hichilema to step aside and allow Lungu’s family to bury their loved one in a dignified manner,” Kabwe said.
He said if Hichilema had been a humble and listening President, he would have just stayed away.
“We urge Hichilema as a leader to feel sympathy for the deceased’s family and help them to bury their beloved one in a dignified manner by staying away from the burial,” Kabwe said.
He said Hichilema’s absence would not lower the dignity of the burial of the late former president or himself.
“But rather allow him rest and release the nation from the tension and division that have arisen,” Kabwe said.
He said government should allow late Lungu to rest peacefully and appealed for immediate withdrawal of the case against the widow, Esther Lungu, and family.
Kabwe said Hichilema and the United Party for National Development (UPND) should had conscience.
“It is totally unacceptable and inhuman for government to hold hostage the body of the late former president in the morgue using the court process for the past four months and the consciousness of Cabinet is not shaken,” he said.
Kabwe said the impasse was unacceptable yet simple to resolve if Hichilema could only agree to stay away from the burial and delegate the assignment to his vice president.
“Spare our nation from wasting millions of kwacha in tax payers’ money through paying foreign lawyers and giving allowances to the legal team under the Attorney General,” Kabwe said.
He urged the clergy and traditional leaders to meet Hichilema and counsel him to stay away from this burial so that we can allow the family to peacefully bury their beloved one.
