Zambia\u2019s President Hakainde Hichilema has abruptly ended the national mourning period of former President Edgar Lungu in an escalating stand-off between the family and the authorities about his burial plans.<\/p>\n
It follows the last-minute cancellation of the return of Lungu\u2019s body from South Africa by his family on Wednesday, leaving the country uncertain about when and where the former leader will be buried.<\/p>\n
In his address on Thursday evening, President Hakainde Hichilema announced an immediate end to the mourning period, saying the country needed to \u201cresume normal life\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government has done everything possible to engage with the family of our departed sixth president,\u201d said Hichilema.<\/p>\n
The national mourning period initially ran from 8 to 14 June but was later extended until 23 June, with flags flying at half-mast and radio stations playing solemn music.<\/p>\n
The extension followed a meeting between government officials and Lungu\u2019s family in an attempt to resolve the deadlock over his funeral programme.<\/p>\n
Burial arrangements had been finalised and his remains were due to be flown back home on Wednesday on a private charter plane.<\/p>\n
President Hichilema and senior officials had been prepared to receive the coffin with full military honours, and plans were set for the body to lie in state at Lungu\u2019s residence before a funeral this Sunday and burial the following day.<\/p>\n
However, Lungu\u2019s family on Wednesday blocked the repatriation of Lungu\u2019s remains, saying the government had reneged on its agreement over the funeral plans.<\/p>\n
The family said it hoped that the former president\u2019s body would be repatriated \u201csome day\u201d and buried in Zambia.<\/p>\n
The government expressed regret over the family\u2019s action and issued an apology to the South African government and military, who had prepared for the handover.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unfortunate that their efforts were in vain,\u201d Hichilema said.<\/p>\n
He added that Lungu, being a former president, \u201cbelongs to the nation of Zambia\u201d and his body should therefore \u201cbe buried in Zambia with full honours, and not in any other nation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hichilema said his government had \u201creached a point where a clear decision has to be made,\u201d adding that the country \u201ccannot afford a state of indefinite mourning\u201d.<\/p>\n
The opposition Patriotic Front (PF), the party Lungu led until his death, has backed the family\u2019s position.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government has turned a solemn occasion into a political game,\u201d said PF acting president Given Lubinda. \u201cThis is not how we treat a former head of state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Civil society groups have called for an urgent resolution of the matter, with a section of religious leaders saying the stand-off was \u201churting the dignity of our country\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appeal for humility, dialogue, and a resolution that honours the memory of the former president while keeping the nation united,\u201d said Emmanuel Chikoya, head of the Council of Churches in Zambia.<\/p>\n
The government has called for calm and reaffirmed its willingness to continue dialogue with the family over the impasse.<\/p>\n
Lungu, who led Zambia from 2015 to 2021, died earlier this month in South Africa where he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness.<\/p>\n
After six years as head of state, Lungu lost the 2021 election to Hichilema by a large margin. He stepped back from politics but later returned to the fray.<\/p>\n
He had ambitions to vie for the presidency again but at the end of last year the Constitutional Court barred him from running, ruling that he had already served the maximum two terms allowed by law.<\/p>\n
Despite his disqualification from the presidential election, he remained hugely influential in Zambian politics and did not hold back in his criticism of his successor.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zambia\u2019s President Hakainde Hichilema has abruptly ended the national mourning period of former President Edgar Lungu in an escalating stand-off between the family and the authorities about his burial plans. It follows the last-minute cancellation of the return of Lungu\u2019s body from South Africa by his family on Wednesday, leaving the country uncertain about when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}