By Ollus Ndomu
Zambia’s former president Edgar Chagwa Lungu is no longer here to answer the charges that swirl around his presidency. He died in South Africa on June 5, 2025, leaving behind a family now locked in a bitter legal fight with the state over his burial. But his absence cannot erase the questions that history and justice continue to pose.
The convictions of Joseph Malanji and Fredson Yamba have cracked open the vault of a past too easily glossed over. Malanji, found guilty of acquiring property worth millions through illicit means, used a presidential jet to ferry cash from Turkey. Eleven million dollars withdrawn over the counter, flown home aboard 9J ONE, Zambia’s most sensitive aircraft. These were not isolated lapses; they were operations that would have been visible to the very centre of power.
And here lies the dilemma. Are Zambians to believe that a sitting president, himself a lawyer by training, was unaware that his foreign minister was moving money in such volumes, using state assets? Can the Treasury Secretary authorise transfers of K108 million without Cabinet-level knowledge? These questions are unavoidable, however uncomfortable they may be for those now calling for a dignified burial.
It is telling that the Drug Enforcement Commission is still searching for the missing balance of that $11 million. Just over $5 million has been recovered. The rest has vanished into a maze of deposits and purchases, while ordinary Zambians struggle with collapsed hospitals and empty classrooms. This is not a story of persecution. It is a story of betrayal.
Yet, as government negotiates with the Lungu family over funeral arrangements, reports have emerged of allies close to the family lobbying for cases to be dropped. If this is true, then the debate is not only about dignity in death. It is about impunity in life. Justice must not be traded for ceremonial reconciliation.
The truth is that Zambia cannot afford selective amnesia. To pretend that these crimes occurred in isolation, without the knowledge or protection of the highest office, is to insult the intelligence of the public. It is to normalise grand corruption as a routine of governance. That cannot be the legacy Zambia builds on.
Lungu’s defenders will say he is gone and deserves rest. But the burden of accountability is heavier than the casket. His presidency fostered a climate in which ministers could loot with impunity, and it is dishonest to pretend otherwise. The comparisons Zambians now make between the heavy sentences given to stock thieves and the lighter years handed to grand looters reflect a nation’s pain and disillusionment.
History must judge Edgar Lungu fairly but firmly. His legacy is inseparable from the scandals that flourished under his watch. If the fight against corruption is to mean anything, it must reach beyond Malanji and Yamba to the very culture of leadership that enabled them.
At AfricaWorld, we write not to condemn for the sake of condemnation, but to insist that truth is not negotiable. Zambia needs an honest conversation about the past if it is to build a clean future. The Lungu family may seek dignity in death, but the nation demands accountability in history.
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