Ex-Zambian president’s family wins burial dispute

CAPE TOWN (AP):

A legal battle over where former Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s remains will be buried is over, more than a year after his death, as South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in favour of his family and rejected the Zambian government’s claim of custody over his body.

The ruling overturned a lower South African court decision that had ordered the family to hand over Lungu’s remains to the Zambian government for repatriation.

Lungu died in South Africa on June 5, 2025, aged 68. The Zambian government wanted him to be buried at a cemetery designated for the nation’s leaders, but his family preferred burial in South Africa.

The dispute saw Lungu’s bitter rivalry with political opponent and current Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema continue after his death. His body remained in a mortuary while the legal battle unfolded.

Lungu’s family said it was honouring his last wishes that Hichilema come nowhere near his body and not preside over a state funeral for him in Zambia.

The family’s funeral service for Lungu in South Africa last June was interrupted when the Zambian government filed an urgent court case, arguing that the country’s customs and protocols required him to be buried at the national cemetery.

In a majority ruling by a panel of judges yesterday, the Supreme Court of Appeal said that “the common law and constitutional rights of family prevail” over the Zambian government’s claim.

“The judgment provides clarity and finality on a matter that has caused immense pain and uncertainty for the family during a period of profound grief,” Lungu family spokesperson Makebi Zulu said in a statement.

The Zambian government said it would not appeal the ruling to South Africa’s Constitutional Court and that it was “now a private matter for the Lungu family to proceed with their desired burial.”

It noted that all five other Zambian presidents since independence in 1964 who have died were buried at the cemetery for leaders, and that Lungu would be the first not to be.

Lungu served as president of the southern African nation from 2015 to 2021, twice defeating Hichilema in elections. During Lungu’s presidency, then opposition leader Hichilema was imprisoned for four months on treason charges that were ultimately dropped.

Lungu lost the 2021 election to Hichilema and later claimed he had been effectively placed under house arrest by authorities acting on Hichilema’s instructions.