The EditorZambia
The arrest of Fred M’membe over his inflammatory remarks regarding the delayed burial of former President Edgar Lungu has once again exposed the depth of hypocrisy that has characterised opposition politics since the sixth Head of State’s death.
Instead of sobriety and statesmanship, the country has been treated to uncalled for theatrics, provocation, and calculated outrage. 
Dr. M’membe’s comments on Kwithu FM and to the press, in which he alleged that President Hakainde Hichilema had imprisoned the body of his predecessor and went further to ask whether the incumbent intended to eat the body, were not only reckless but demeaning to the dignity of the office he once claimed to respect.
Such reckless language lowers public discourse and trivialises a matter that should be handled with decorum from a man gunning for the top job.
It is astonishing that a man who presents himself as a principled socialist and seasoned intellectual would resort to such crude rhetoric.
One would expect Dr. M’membe, a former media mogul, turned politician to appreciate the weight of his words. Instead, he chose sensationalism over substance.
The question must be asked. What exactly does he hope to achieve by reducing a solemn national issue to street level insults?
The law enforcement agencies have since charged him under the Cyber Crimes Act, while the courts will determine the legal merits of the case, the political and moral bankruptcy of his remarks is already evident. A former president’s burial is not a platform for cheap political mileage.
Equally troubling are the comments by Reverend Godfridah Sumaili, who claimed that she saw President Lungu’s body in South Africa and urged the nation to stop rumours, suggesting that he is alive.
On the surface, Rev. Sumaili’s statement appears to be a call for truth. Yet her remarks quickly veered into politicisation when she questioned why the President Hakainde Hichilema would want to see the body and suggested that asking certain individuals to stay away from the funeral was justified.
These statements have little to do with the body itself and everything to do with advancing a political narrative. The implication that the government is deliberately frustrating burial arrangements ignores a fundamental fact.
The procedure for burying a former Head of State is handled by the government in power and presided over by the incumbent president, who in this case is President Hichilema. Is this difficult to understand?
State funerals are not private family ceremonies conducted in isolation from national protocol. They are constitutional events involving security, diplomatic engagement, and national symbolism.
The sitting president plays a central role. To frame this as interference is either ignorance or deliberate mischief.
From the moment President Lungu’s death was announced, the Patriotic Front (PF) and its allies have turned his body into a political tool.
Instead of mourning with dignity, there has been a sustained campaign to weaponise grief. The most glaring example was the sponsorship of Makebi Zulu, presented as a family spokesperson but later advanced as a presidential candidate. That transition from legal representative to political aspirant exposed the underlying agenda.
Is this not shameful to the widow, Esther Lungu, and to the children? Or has the former First Family itself embraced the politicisation?
Tasila Lungu rode on her father’s presidency by coming back to Zambia from America to secure a parliamentary seat in Chawama and continue to invoke his death amid numerous corruption cases.
The same applies to Dalitso Lungu, whose legal troubles are well documented. Sympathy is being cultivated where accountability should prevail.
In short, it increasingly appears that the Lungu family, together with sections of the opposition, have found in the late president’s body a rallying point for political survival.
The narrative of victimhood is easier to sell than a credible policy platform.
Dr. M’membe has little to offer in terms of concrete policy alternatives. Rather than articulating how his Socialist Party would grow the economy, tackle unemployment, or improve public services, he has chosen to harp on President Lungu’s remains. That is not leadership but opportunism.
The continued delay in burial is regrettable because no nation should remain in prolonged mourning, but the blame should not be misdirected at President Hichilema or his government as the M’membes and, Sumailis of this world are doing.
If there are disagreements between the family and the State regarding protocol, those should be resolved through dialogue, not public insults and televised accusations.
Zambians deserve better than this spectacle. A former president’s passing should unite the country in reflection, not divide it along partisan lines.
The Constitution and established State procedures are clear on how such matters are handled. To pretend otherwise is to mislead the public.
The blame for the politicisation of President Lungu’s burial does not lie solely at the feet of the government. It rests heavily with those who have sought to turn a coffin into a campaign platform. In this case, Lungu’s wife and a daughter he had from his first marriage, not to leave out an ambitious
lawyer-turned politician and a horde of PF chancers.
Until these unsympathetic political minds come to their humane senses, the body of the late president will remain at the centre of a political circus rather than a dignified farewell befitting a former Head of State.
