More than a year after the death of Zambia’s former president Edgar Lungu, his family have won their appeal to have his body buried in South Africa, where he died—overturning a High Court ruling that allowed the Zambian government to repatriate the remains.
It is not yet clear whether Tuesday’s ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein finally brings the legal battle over his burial to a close, following a long-standing feud between Lungu and his successor, President Hakainde Hichilema.
All eyes are now on the Zambian government’s next move, as its lawyers await instructions.
The government has long maintained that, as a former head of state, Lungu should be honoured in his home country. It had wanted him laid to rest alongside his predecessors in the special presidential burial ground in the capital, Lusaka.
However, Lungu’s family insisted on a private burial after negotiations with the government over funeral arrangements broke down.
“The very ritual intended to bring closure has, instead, pitted family against the state in a hard-fought legal dispute far from the protagonists’ home,” said Justice Raylene May Keightley in Tuesday’s judgment.
Last August, the South African High Court in Pretoria ruled that the Zambian government could repatriate the body and accord him a state funeral—a decision that left Lungu’s relatives visibly distraught in the courtroom.
The family appealed the ruling, but in a surprise development in April, the Zambian government announced that Lungu’s remains had been “formally transferred” to the state by the South African court.
However, just hours later, the same South African court ordered that the body be returned to the family until the matter was resolved.
The former president died of an undisclosed illness at the age of 68 at a clinic in Pretoria. Chaos followed his death, with mourners receiving conflicting information from the government and Lungu’s political party, the Patriotic Front (PF).
Two separate mourning periods were declared, and at one point there were competing condolence books.
Lungu, who led Zambia from 2015 to 2021, had numerous clashes with Hichilema, who was once the opposition leader before eventually defeating his long-time rival.
After Lungu’s death, his family said the former president did not want Hichilema to attend his funeral or be “anywhere near” his body.
In the latest ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeal, the judges said it was clear that the former president “viewed himself to be persona non grata in his own country” and felt he would not be afforded a dignified send-off if his successor was present.
English 