By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The High Court in Pretoria ruled on Friday that Zambia’s former president Edgar Lungu, should be buried in Zambia, against his family’s wishes.
Lungu died on 5 June 2025, at the age of 68, in a Pretoria hospital.
His burial has been the subject of a two-month dispute between Zambia’s government, which had planned a state funeral for him in Lusaka, and his family, who wanted him buried in South Africa.
Lungu’s widow and children blocked his body from being repatriated, saying he would not have wanted his political rival current Zambian president Hakainde Hichilema at his funeral.
Handing down the ruling, judge Aubrey Ledwaba said the Zambian government was “entitled to repatriate the body of the late president” and ordered his family to “immediately surrender” it to authorities.
“The order of the court reads as follows … it is ordered that the applicant (government of Zambia) is entitled to repatriate the body of the late president, Edgar Lungu, for a state funeral and burial thereafter in Embassy Park, in Lusaka, Republic of Zambia.”
But Lungu’s Patriotic Front party said the family had “filed an appeal against the judgement”.
The current row over Lungu’s burial underscores the tense relationship between him and his successor, which played out in life and continues even in death.
Hichilema defeated Lungu in a bitterly fought election in 2021, having lost to him in 2016. In 2017, Hichilema was sent to prison for four months on charges of treason after his convoy did not give way to Lungu’s presidential motorcade. The charges were dropped and Hichilema released after an international outcry.
After Hichilema took power, Lungu accused his successor of targeting him and in effect placing him under house arrest. In 2023, police stopped Lungu from going out for runs, saying they were “political activism” and needed to be approved beforehand to “ensure public safety”.
Lungu;s wife, Esther Lungu, and their children have faced various corruption charges. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of stealing cars, which she was due to face in court this week.
Last year, Lungu attempted to return to frontline politics but was barred from running again for the presidency in next year’s election. Zambia’s constitutional court ruled that when Lungu took over as president after the incumbent, Michael Sata, died in 2015, the period until the 2016 election counted as a full first term in power.