Last Thursday, former president Edgar Lungu died in South Africa where he had been receiving medical treatment for some unannounced illness.
The moment he died news spread like world fire. His death became the talk of the country, the region and the world at large.
While most media organisations and social sites in the country were posting the news and reactions of the former president’s passing, it was shocking that the national broadcaster, ZNBC, pretended like nothing had happened.
The first posting on their social pages only happened in the evening after President Hakainde Hichilema posted a message on his official Facebook page.
More puzzling was the follow-up action by ZNBC to completely minimize the breaking story on their 19 hours main news in favour of some works the President was undertaking somewhere. The news was relegated to a subsequent story and not the main headline as we all expected.
Clearly, they pretended not to know that Lungu had died and seems likely they were waiting for instructions from the people that ‘approve’ the news lineup on what to read or post on their blogs. But one thing ZNBC must know is that Zambians are watching and can see that what is happening is not right and these are things the UPND government while in opposition complained bitterly about – unprofessionalism of ZNBC.
Considering the fact that Lungu served as president of Zambia for seven years, the news of his passing should have been a top story but this was not the case.
The development left many Zambians shocked and angered, wondering why the death of a former head of state could not make it to the top stories, leading some to question whether Hichilema was scared of Lungu in his death. It’s a known fact the two did not enjoy a healthy relationship. Could that be the reason for all this? As a Christian nation this looks bad on us.
In addition to the black out of the news of Edgar’s death on ZNBC, opposition leader Jackson Silavwe posted on his Facebook page that he was shocked to learn that after several hours of Lungu’s death, there was no message of condolences on the Facebook accounts for the Zambia Army, Zambia Air force, Zambia National Service and the Zambia Police on the death of their once commander-in-chief.
He expressed concern on the sort of leadership and how Hichilema must be sincere about his call for national unity in mourning the former president.
Our institutions seem to have been politicised to a point where they are even scared to just post a message of condolences on the death of the former head of state.
This is not healthy for the country and must be rectified going forward.
In the past, we have seen the death of presidents and former presidents announced at a higher level and this has been done almost immediately. What has changed with Lungu? Was the government embarrassed to announce the passing because Lungu self-sponsored his travel and medical bills in South Africa? It seemed odd that the announcement on the death of a former president had to be done by his daughter Tasila, the PF and Tonse Alliance. UPND is in government and should have used its incumbency to show leadership on this matter.
In any case, our High Commission in South Africa should have been keeping an eye on his medical progress in one way or another, after all they are government with all state amenities to get any information they so wish and could have immediately passed on or alerted the government in Zambia.
Whether the government liked Lungu or not, they have an obligation to the Zambian people to handle things right.
The official statement was only presented by the Secretary to the Cabinet on Saturday, two days after Lungu died. This created a gap in terms of information flow, where instead of government announcing the death and other details, the information started flowing from the daughter, the PF and its Tonse Alliance partners.
Because of this information gap, we saw the PF proceeding to host a funeral of its leader at their party secretariat in Lusaka.
And while the government announced that the official venue of the funeral was going to be at Belvedere Lodge in Lusaka, the PF however, insisted that they will continue mourning from the party Secretariat as the official mourning place.
Going forward, we expect the UPND, government institutions and the public media to redeem themselves by mourning the late president with sincerity. There is no need to wait for instructions to share a message of condolences which is only honouring a man who led this nation for six years. It’s not like when they do so then Lungu will come back and gain prominence over Hichilema.
By Daily Revelation Editor
Last Thursday, former president Edgar Lungu died in South Africa where he had been receiving medical treatment for some unannounced illness.
The moment he died news spread like world fire. His death became the talk of the country, the region and the world at large.
While most media organisations and social sites in the country were posting the news and reactions of the former president’s passing, it was shocking that the national broadcaster, ZNBC, pretended like nothing had happened.
The first posting on their social pages only happened in the evening after President Hakainde Hichilema posted a message on his official Facebook page.
More puzzling was the follow-up action by ZNBC to completely minimize the breaking story on their 19 hours main news in favour of some works the President was undertaking somewhere. The news was relegated to a subsequent story and not the main headline as we all expected.
Clearly, they pretended not to know that Lungu had died and seems likely they were waiting for instructions from the people that ‘approve’ the news lineup on what to read or post on their blogs. But one thing ZNBC must know is that Zambians are watching and can see that what is happening is not right and these are things the UPND government while in opposition complained bitterly about – unprofessionalism of ZNBC.
Considering the fact that Lungu served as president of Zambia for seven years, the news of his passing should have been a top story but this was not the case.
The development left many Zambians shocked and angered, wondering why the death of a former head of state could not make it to the top stories, leading some to question whether Hichilema was scared of Lungu in his death. It’s a known fact the two did not enjoy a healthy relationship. Could that be the reason for all this? As a Christian nation this looks bad on us.
In addition to the black out of the news of Edgar’s death on ZNBC, opposition leader Jackson Silavwe posted on his Facebook page that he was shocked to learn that after several hours of Lungu’s death, there was no message of condolences on the Facebook accounts for the Zambia Army, Zambia Air force, Zambia National Service and the Zambia Police on the death of their once commander-in-chief.
He expressed concern on the sort of leadership and how Hichilema must be sincere about his call for national unity in mourning the former president.
Our institutions seem to have been politicised to a point where they are even scared to just post a message of condolences on the death of the former head of state.
This is not healthy for the country and must be rectified going forward.
In the past, we have seen the death of presidents and former presidents announced at a higher level and this has been done almost immediately. What has changed with Lungu? Was the government embarrassed to announce the passing because Lungu self-sponsored his travel and medical bills in South Africa? It seemed odd that the announcement on the death of a former president had to be done by his daughter Tasila, the PF and Tonse Alliance. UPND is in government and should have used its incumbency to show leadership on this matter.
In any case, our High Commission in South Africa should have been keeping an eye on his medical progress in one way or another, after all they are government with all state amenities to get any information they so wish and could have immediately passed on or alerted the government in Zambia.
Whether the government liked Lungu or not, they have an obligation to the Zambian people to handle things right.
The official statement was only presented by the Secretary to the Cabinet on Saturday, two days after Lungu died. This created a gap in terms of information flow, where instead of government announcing the death and other details, the information started flowing from the daughter, the PF and its Tonse Alliance partners.
Because of this information gap, we saw the PF proceeding to host a funeral of its leader at their party secretariat in Lusaka.
And while the government announced that the official venue of the funeral was going to be at Belvedere Lodge in Lusaka, the PF however, insisted that they will continue mourning from the party Secretariat as the official mourning place.
Going forward, we expect the UPND, government institutions and the public media to redeem themselves by mourning the late president with sincerity. There is no need to wait for instructions to share a message of condolences which is only honouring a man who led this nation for six years. It’s not like when they do so then Lungu will come back and gain prominence over Hichilema.
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Stop politicising Lungu’s funeral- Fr Chikoya …we do not use the death of someone to gain political mileage
ePaper No.258 Monday, June 09-10, 2025
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