Zambia’s Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha has confirmed that the Pretoria High Court has transferred the remains of former president Edgar Lungu to the Zambian government after the late leader’s family failed to proceed with its case before South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal.
Kabesha said the transfer, effected on Wednesday, followed the lapse of the family’s appeal efforts and enforced an earlier South African High Court order issued in August 2025 authorising the Zambian government to repatriate the body for a state funeral.
“The mortal remains of the former President have since been relocated from Two Mountains Burial Services (PTY) Limited to a facility managed by the South African government,” Kabesha said in a statement.
He added: “In line with the court’s directive, the (Zambian) government will engage with the former President’s family to finalise burial arrangements.”
The development brings renewed clarity to a saga that has dragged on since Lungu’s death in Pretoria on 5 June 2025.
His burial was delayed for nearly a year amid a standoff between the family – which insisted on a private funeral – and the Zambian government, which maintained that as a former president he should be interred at the presidential burial site in Lusaka with full state honours.
The Pretoria High Court ruled last year that the government had the legal authority to repatriate the remains, but the family appealed, arguing that the decision infringed on their rights and Lungu’s personal wishes.
Kabesha said the family’s inability to advance the appeal has now cleared the way for the state to take custody of the body and begin formal preparations for repatriation.
The family has not publicly responded to the latest development although family spokesperson Makebi Zulu told a Zambian online news channel that they believe their appeal remains valid and have filed an urgent application seeking to have the body returned to the original funeral home.
Lungu, who served as Zambia’s sixth president from 2015 to 2021, died at age 68.
Relations between the former president and his successor, Hakainde Hichilema, had long been strained and the family has previously said Lungu did not want Hichilema to attend his funeral – a point that further complicated negotiations over burial arrangements.
JN/APA