LET GO OF LUNGU’S BODY
Changala pleads with HH to let family bury ECL
By George Zulu
PLEASE, let go of former president Edgar Lungu’s remains so that his family can bury him, human rights activist Brebner Changala has pleaded with President Hakainde Hichilema.
And Changala has appealed to the three church mother bodies to intervene in the burial impasse of the late former president.
In a walk-in interview, Changala urged Hichilema to exercise wisdom and allow the Lungu family to put to rest the former head of state.
“I will make a plea to President Hakainde Hichilema to gather courage and some wisdom to let go of ECL and allow ECL to be buried by the family. This is a moral issue. This is about governance with integrity,” he said.
Lungu died in South Africa on June 5, but his remains remain in that country awaiting burial as a legal war rages in courts over his burial.
Changala said Hichilema was never friends with Lungu and, therefore, insisting on burying the latter was not only against his (Lungu’s) will, but raised suspicion and moral issues about the President.
He said the United Party for National Development (UPND) administration’s insistence on burying Lungu was born out of hatred, malice and abuse by Hichilema.
“Mr Hakainde, you are very, very aware that ECL was not your best human being that you would want to honour today, and it’s from that standpoint that you must not use this state funeral to extend the abuse of our former president. Let go,” Changala said.
He said Hichilema never recognised Lungu as President, a fact which has never been disputed.
Changala said Lungu died a sad man who was never respected, recognised, but abused and called a criminal by Hichilema and his friends.
“This is a president you never recognised when you were in the opposition. These are facts. This is a president, the leader of the opposition in the house, then, Mr Jack Mwiimbu, used to marshal his fellow MPs to walk out whenever he entered Parliament, and you never, not even one moment, punished any of your MPs,” he said.
“Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu died a very sad man. When he left office, Mr Hakainde, and probably with the full support of Mr Charles Milupi, minister of infrastructure, mounted a campaign of humiliation. Up to a week before he died, you went for him,” Changala said.
He said the UPND had branded Lungu a criminal and murderer to discredit him and make Zambians hate him.
“ECL was branded a criminal and a murderer by you and your administration. A murderer who killed Mapenzi Chibulo, he killed Lawrence Banda and killed Nsama Nsama. That has been your mantra for four years. And today, you can’t even make a eulogy on how the people of Zambia should remember ECL. But yet, you take his family to court and you block the burial for the last three months,” Changala said.
He urged Hichilema to sit back and reflect on whether what he was doing was in the best interest of the country.
“You claim you want to give him a befitting burial and honour. Every right-thinking Zambian has come to realise that that is not the purpose of suing the family. The purpose is to humiliate ECL in death as you did it in his life. You have never made a statement since his death to apologise and show remorse. You have gone about your normal business while your friend is in the fridge in a mortuary in South Africa,” Changala said.
And Changala has pleaded with the three church mother bodies to find time and meet Hichilema and persuade him to let go of Lungu’s body.
He said the conduct by Hichilema was inhuman and totally unacceptable.
“It’s for this reason I ask the three church mother bodies, the Zambia Council of Catholic Bishops (ZCCB), the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) and the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ), to come together and help the country. We are under siege. We need the Church to have an audience with the President and guide him accordingly. The humiliation of ECL is historical, and it will be in people’s memories for many, many years to come,” Changala said.
He said Hichilema did not have any role to play in Lungu’s funeral apart from humiliating a dead body.
