By Darius Choonya
Former First Lady Esther Lungu has revealed that her husband, the late former President Edgar Lungu, left Zambia out of fear of being persecuted by the current government.
She says that upon his departure , without official clearance, Mr. Lungu knew there was little to no possibility of returning to his home country.
According to Mrs. Lungu, both her husband and members of the former First Family have faced mistreatment by the current administration, which has accused them of owning property suspected to be proceeds of crime.
She further claims that following political remarks he made, Mr. Lungu was stripped of all state-sponsored benefits and reduced to the status of an ordinary private citizen.
She alleges that he was subjected to gross human rights abuses, including public vilification, severe and unlawful restrictions on his freedom of movement, infringement of his right to assembly, and denial of access to medical care amounting to a deprivation of his right to life.
It is against this backdrop, she says, that Mr. Lungu expressed a final wish that President Hakainde Hichilema should not attend his funeral.
These revelations have been made in Mrs. Lungu’s submissions in an ongoing legal matter, in which the Zambian government is seeking to have the former president’s remains repatriated for burial in Zambia.
Mr. Lungu died on June 5, 2025, in South Africa, after being diagnosed with terminal oesophageal cancer.
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