*Edith Nawakwi is Now Buried and Edgar Lungu Must Stop Playing Politics with People’s Lives*
*By Magret Mwanza*
Edith Nawakwi is dead. She died outside Zambia, after being evacuated by the very government that Edgar Lungu has chosen to demonize for political mileage.
And while we mourn her loss, we must confront a painful and urgent truth: politicians like Lungu should be the last to speak about medical evacuations, healthcare failures, or the sanctity of life.
This is the same man who ruled Zambia for seven long years—seven years that witnessed the crumbling of our health system, the neglect of our public hospitals, and the mass resignation of doctors and nurses who sought dignity abroad.
A man under whose leadership Zambians had to beg for medicine, travel hundreds of kilometers for basic procedures, and die silently in waiting lines. And today, with the typical arrogance of a failed statesman, Edgar Lungu has the gall to lament healthcare conditions?
*Let’s be clear: Nawakwi did not die because the government delayed her evacuation. She died because the health system she, Lungu, and their political peers systematically underfunded for decades no longer works for anyone—rich or poor.* What Lungu and his ilk must accept is that they are reaping what they sowed.
If Zambia had a robust, well-equipped healthcare system, Nawakwi might never have needed to be flown out. But for years, leaders like Lungu prioritized personal luxury over public welfare. This is the same man who shamelessly gifted his son over 90 vehicles, each worth nearly K800,000, while hospitals couldn’t afford gloves or oxygen cylinders.
His children are whisked away to private foreign hospitals and even his grandchildren are born in American hospitals while women in Chipata and Shangombo gave birth in unsanitary, overcrowded clinics.
And now, the crocodile tears are flowing. Spare us. *Who says politicians are entitled to medical evacuation at taxpayers’ expense? Why should elite politicians—who have already looted public coffers—be rewarded with foreign treatment while the poor are sentenced to die at home? Why must the Zambian health sector only matter when a minister, a former president, or a political ally is on the deathbed?*
Zambians have had enough of this elitist double standard. If you failed to fix the health system when you had the chance, *then die in it with the rest of us. That is the bitter truth no one wants to say,* but it must be said. *A politician’s life is not worth more than a marketeer’s, a teacher’s, or a bus driver’s. If our mothers and fathers are dying in neglected wards, then let politicians die there too. That’s justice.*
The passing of Edith Nawakwi was a tragedy. But let it serve as a wake-up call—not for photo ops, not for statements from hypocrites like Edgar Lungu—but for a total overhaul of the way we view healthcare and leadership responsibility.
Zambia must now draw a line in the sand: *no more medical tourism for politicians until the public healthcare system works for all citizens.* Let those who broke it, fix it. Let those who plundered, restore. Let those who turned a blind eye, face the consequences of their own negligence.
*Edgar Lungu, you were in charge. You had power. You had billions. But you chose self-enrichment over service. You chose foreign hospitals over fixing ours. You chose to bury Zambia under debt while flying your family abroad for comfort. You do not get to act innocent. Not now. Not ever.*
As we continue to morn Edith Nawakwi, let us also bury the culture of elite entitlement, the mythology of political sainthood, and the hypocrisy of failed leaders pretending to care after the damage is done.
The time for justice, for accountability, and for true reform is now.
Edith Nawakwi is Now Buried and Edgar Lungu Must Stop Playing Politics with People’s Lives
