By EditorZambia
In a deeply troubling turn for Zambian politics, Makebi Zulu, a relatively inexperienced politician, is riding the corpse of the late 6th Republican President Edgar Chagwa Lungu into the centre stage of power.
What is being pitched as moral authority and stewardship, however, is increasingly seen by many sane Zambians as a tawdry, immoral, and culturally alien spectacle, a cheapening of the presidency, and betrayal of tradition. 
At the heart of this drama lies a delicate moral question. Who has truly “seen” Edgar Lungu in death? As former Patriotic Front (PF) secretary-general Davies Mwila has pointedly observed, “no PF central committee member has seen Lungu’s body.”
This is no trivial footnote. It raises the question of how far Zulu and his backers are willing to blur the boundary between grief and political takeover.
An Upstart Without Roots
Makebi Zulu is not a longstanding power broker in the PF. His national profile, until now, has largely been built on his role as a lawyer and spokesperson for the Lungu family.
Despite his legal credentials, he studied law at the University of Zambia, served as MP for Malambo constituency in Eastern Province between 2016–2021, and was Eastern Province deputy minister.
Zulu remains an amateur in the high-stakes world of presidential ambition. However, it appears what he lacks in pedigree, he compensates with audacity. Makebi has positioned himself not just as a defender of Lungu’s dignity but as a political heir, claiming moral rights to Lungu’s legacy and turning the late Head of State’s supposedly funeral dispute into a platform for national leadership.
This is no quiet legal advocacy; this is power politics leveraging death itself.
Eastern Traditional Leaders Left Out in the Cold
It is especially galling that Makebi is attempting to appropriate Lungu’s legacy without the blessing of the very traditional custodians who could claim their own cultural authority.
In Zambia’s Eastern Province, Edgar Lungu’s native region, traditional leaders have reportedly expressed deep discomfort at the spectacle.
They see it as a hijacking of Edgar Lungu’s memory by someone who, regardless of legal role, lacks the customary legitimacy that birthright and tradition confer.
To many in the East, Makebi’s performance smacks opportunism rather than reverence.
Even as Makebi purports to defend the Lungu family from political manipulation, he is himself manipulating their grief publicly and politically.
The Mundubile Challenge: A Clash of Money and Morality
Standing against Makebi within the PF is Brian Mundubile, a relatively seasoned politician with a base of support among established PF parliamentarians.
In short, Mundubile represents a more traditional route, not by inheritance, but by the little political experience and some party loyalty.
The tension between Makebi and Mundubile is not just about who leads PF; it is a battle of narratives. As one commentator put it, Mundubile’s critics accuse him of being “a UPND project” in a campaign likely to heat up in days to come.
Mundubile has denied the UPND connection narrative. But in politics, possibilities exist, and if it works for him and his alleged ally, why not?
Daily Nation Zambia
Meanwhile, Makebi’s campaign is backed by dramatic appeals to Edgar Lungu’s memory, which opens him to accusations that he is buying legitimacy with sentiment, not building it with substance.
The Horror of Using a Dead Man in Politics
What troubles many Zambians most deeply is the exploitation of the late former president for political gain. Makebi remains the family’s chief voice in the bitter burial standoff with the government.
He claims the government disrespected Edgar Lungu by denying him dignity in death and allegedly attempted to manipulate funeral arrangements. He paints himself as the only one brave enough to “tell the full story” of Edgar Lungu’s death.
Yet critics argue that just because someone speaks for a family does not give them a divine right to seize the deceased’s political mantle.
The fact that key PF figures from its central committee have also not seen Edgar Lungu’s body raises profound ethical and cultural red flags.
Mwila’s pointed observation suggests a lack of transparency that goes beyond ordinary politics.
Cultural and Moral Betrayal
Beyond institutional norms, Makebi’s manoeuvre is deeply unsettling from a cultural standpoint. In many Zambian traditions, the dead are meant to rest, not to be paraded in political play.
To use the physical remains of a former Head of State as a stepping stone for selfish political power is a sacrilege in the eyes of many, a violation of both moral and traditional values.
Moreover, Makebi’s alliance with former first lady Esther Lungu, the widow, and Tasila Lungu, Edgar Lungu’s daughter, has ignited further unease and understandably so. Some see their involvement not as a genuine quest for closure but as a calculated authorisation for Makebi’s presidential ambitions.
The charge Makebi faces is the immoral and unculturarly licencing of candidacy over the grave of the departed, which cheapens the supreme office of the land. It turns mourning into marketing and remembrance into a vote-getting exercise.
The Plea of Sane Zambians
Sane Zambians are rightly alarmed. No honourable man or woman should stake a bid for the highest office on a dead person. To do so cheapens the sanctity of leadership. It reduces the presidency to trophy-chasing. Not service.
There is a profound cruelty in politicising grief in using the most tragic loss for the most opportunistic ambitions.
Edgar Lungu served Zambia. He led this country and built his legacy. His death should not be hijacked and stitched into political slogans or be used as the basis of a coronation by proxy.
The Call to Reflection
We must ask ourselves. Is this Makebi, the person that Zambians want to the next Head of State of this country? A person who builds his claim on legal technicalities and funeral disputes? Someone who advances by invoking a dead man’s memory rather than building on his own merit?
If the PF and Zambia at large are to heal, then the former ruling party must choose a direction that honours both tradition and integrity.
Makebi’s path risks turning Edgar Lungu’s legacy into a political mausoleum.
Restore Dignity, Not Division
Makebi’s bid may be politically savvy, but it is morally fraught. He is not just an upstart. He is a disruptor who questions the very boundaries between life, death, and power.
Traditional leaders, party stalwarts, and ordinary citizens must resist this hollow coronation. The dead should be allowed to rest, and the living should aspire.
Zambia must recover its moral spine. There’s a need to demand leadership that is not grounded in spectacle but in service. Let us not concede the grave to power-hungry ambitions masquerading as dignity.
Lungu’s legacy belongs to Zambia, not as a prop for someone’s campaign, but as the testament of a former president, now at rest.
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