A South African court has ruled that Zambia’s former president, Edgar Lungu, who died in South Africa, should be buried in Zambia against his family’s wishes.
Lungu’s 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, Zambia’s head of state from 2015 to 2021, died in South Africa on June 5 while receiving medical treatment.
South Africa’s high court halted plans for Lungu to be buried in Johannesburg on June 25, hours before a private ceremony was due to start.
Zambia’s government had approached the court arguing that Lungu should be given a state funeral and buried at a designated site in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, like all other presidents since independence from the United Kingdom in 1964.
Lungu’s family said the late leader did not want the current president, Hakainde Hichilema – a longstanding political rival and his successor, at his funeral.
On Friday, a high court judge in Pretoria said Lungu’s body should “immediately” be handed over to a representative of Zambia’s court system for repatriation and burial in Lusaka.
“A former president’s personal wishes or the wishes of his family cannot outweigh the right of the state to honour that individual with a state funeral”, the court said.
Zambia’s Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha, who was at the court, said the government appreciated the judge’s ruling.
Lungu’s sister, Bertha Lungu, also at the court, was in tears after the judgement was read out.
Lungu’s Patriotic Front party said the family had “filed an appeal against the judgement”.
Lungu was elected to lead the copper-rich Southern African country in 2015, but lost elections six years later to Hichilema, from the United Party for National Development.
Since then, his wife and children have been charged with corruption and possession of suspected proceeds of crime, in what the family has claimed is part of a political vendetta.
Lungu’s daughter, Tasila Lungu, was arrested in February on money laundering charges, having previously been detained with her mother and sister on fraud charges in 2024.
