Zambia’s presidential feud that even death could not end

The personal has become very political in Zambia.

The mourning and the accumulation of a funeral are never an easy moment, but throw in the fall of a long-standing feud between the two best politicians in the country-President Hakainde Hichillema and his already luck of the predecessor Edgar Lungs-and you have an explosive mix.

It was the dislike that Lungu’s family said that one of his dying desires was that he should not walk anywhere near his body.

The order has expanded the government to honor the former head of state, created an alarming break in the country and let people wonder how things got so bad.

Sunday had to see the state funeral for the 68-year-old, who has been running six years since 2015. But there will be no visit to dignitaries and the place-a conference center in the heart of the capital, Lusaka-will lie empty.

There was already a hint of possible problems that are to come immediately after Lungu’s death on June 5, in A video message shared by his daughter on Facebook.

Dressed in a thick, black jacket and tears hold, Tassila Lungu said her father died in a hospital in South Africa, where she was treated with “dignity and privacy”.

She rounded the one-minute message, saying that “at this moment of grief, we called the spirit of” One Zambia, One Nation “-the union of Veru, which heads President Lungu’s service to our country.”

To emphasize the need for unity at a time when the tradition suggested that the nation should naturally be collected was the clue, that everything was wrong.

And there was another question: where was the president’s message?

The statement of G -Ja Lungu has confirmed rumors on social media about her father’s death, condolence messages have already been sent, including the President of Kenya, but there was no word from the hychillema.

While independent retail outlets report the news, the National Television Operator ZnbC remained silent.

Then, three hours after the daughter’s post, Zambia’s Head of State shared his thoughts In a text post on Facebook. He made his appeal for unity by asking people to “maintain the values ​​of peace, dignity and cohesion, which define us as Zambians.”

Information Minister Cornelius Mweetwa has rejected concerns about slowing down the hychilem by talking about death. He told the BBC that on the basis of a precedent, it was not the head of the role of the state to be the first to announce the passage of a predecessor.

Nevertheless, Lungu’s supporters believe that the message of the Hichlema of “cohesion” rang a hollow.

Hihillema finally became president in his sixth attempt after steadily defeated Lungu on the ballot boxes in 2021. It was their third election match, but the feud exceeded the rivalry of the newsletter.

The key to understanding these was more than 100 days that the hychillem, the leader of the opposition at that time, spent in detention in 2017, in anticipation of a lawsuit on state treason.

He was accused of threatening the life of then -President Lungu after his forklifts refused to give way to the one who transported the head of state.

The allegations had only been dropped after the intervention of the Secretary -General of the Community.

Later that year, Bbc that he was kept in seclusion for the first eight days in humiliating and inhuman conditions “without electricity, without water, without toilet.” He personally accused Lungu of his prison.

It was just one in 17 cases that the Hichlema was arrested. Proponents of his United Party for National Development were also harassed by supporters of the ruling Patriotic Front (PF).

The 2021 elections could draw a line under things.

Lungu, who was rejected by a margin of nearly a million electorate votes, tired of accusations of corruption and concerns about the obvious anti -democratic behavior, has gone into political retirement.

But as the disappointment of the Presidency of the Hihillem increased because of the ongoing economic difficulties, Lungu felt the opportunity and announced in October 2023 that he was returning to the policy of the front line.

Shortly after, a message Lungu was deprived of his retirement benefits and privileges from the state, as he returned to active policy.

This decision is ranked by the former president and his family.

Lungu also complained about police harassment. At one point last year, he said he was “practically under house arrest”.

In 2023, police warned him not to run in public, describing his weekly training as “political activism”.

“I can’t get out of my house without being accepted and challenging by the police and brought me back home,” Lungu told the BBC in May 2024.

In this interviewHe also claims that he was forbidden to attend a conference abroad and travel abroad for medical treatment.

The Minister of Information has flatly denied that there was once a ban on travel and described the idea that his movement was restricted in Zambia as a “fiction and figure of the imagination of politically charged minds.”

MWEETWA added that despite the treatment of the trichlem when he was in opposition, he was determined not to do the same to Lungu.

There are also accusations that the President’s anti -corruption crusade is aimed at the former PF governor, including Lungu’s family.

His widow, which continues to be investigated, has been taken to court and losing properties. Some of his children, including Tasila, have also encountered similar treatment – all deny misconduct.

At the end of last year, the Constitutional Court banned him from running for a president again, ordering that he had already served the maximum two terms authorized by law.

The former head of state was angry with the way he felt he had been treated.

“There was no love between the two men and (Lungu) the opinion that:” I do not want people to pretend to be in my death, that they care for me when I don’t really, “said the family lawyer McEBI Zulu.

In the end, Lungu managed to reach South Africa in January, but Mr Zulu said he was told by his doctors, after a series of tests that if he had gone for a check earlier, the treatment would have had a better chance of success.

It was not revealed what he was suffering from.

In part in the light of this, Lungu said he would not want the current president to attend his funeral. “

The government rejected the idea that Lungu had stopped going to see his doctors in South Africa.

After his death, the family wanted to lead the funeral arrangements, but the Zambian authorities tried to take control.

Despite the bad feeling, last weekend seemed to have made a compromise and plans for a state funeral were made.

But relations again fell apart when the family stated that the government had undergone the agreement after launching a program showing more involvement than a hychillem than it was planned.

In a message on ThursdayThe President thanked the Zambians for their “stability, patience, solidarity and tranquility during this time,” but after making “everything possible to engage the family … We came to a time when a clear decision must be made.”

In doing so, the funeral arrangements in Zambia were detained and the national mourning period was sharply shortened.

The funeral is now scheduled to be held in South Africa and it seems unlikely to be present.

The Zambians hoped both the trichlem and Lungu would bury their differences, but this death and the subsequent events denied people closure and reconciliation they desperately wanted to see between the two.

These differences have also denied many millions of Zambians the opportunity to grieve and send their last respect to the person who has ever ruled them.