South Africa’s Constitutional Court has upheld a lower court ruling that the body of former Zambian President Edgar Lungu must be repatriated to Zambia for a state funeral, rejecting his family’s appeal to bury him privately in Pretoria.
The decision, delivered Tuesday, affirmed the Pretoria High Court’s earlier judgment that Zambia is legally entitled to insist on a state burial for its sixth president.
Lungu died on 5 June while receiving medical treatment in South Africa, sparking a months-long legal and political standoff between his family and the Zambian government over his final resting place.
Lungu’s family had sought to conduct a private burial in South Africa, citing his alleged wish to exclude President Hakainde Hichilema from the funeral proceedings.
The Zambian government, however, maintained that Lungu should be buried at Embassy Park in Lusaka, the official site for presidential burials, in accordance with national protocol.
The Constitutional Court’s ruling came just a day after President Hichilema announced that a Zambian delegation was in South Africa engaging the Lungu family in efforts to resolve the impasse.
Speaking at State House in Lusaka following a meeting with Zimbabwe’s Second Vice President Kembo Mohadi on Monday, Hichilema reiterated his administration’s desire to see Lungu laid to rest in his homeland alongside Zambia’s other former heads of state.
Tensions between the two camps have deep roots.
During Lungu’s presidency, Hichilema was detained on treason charges in 2017. Since Hichilema’s election in 2021, several of Lungu’s allies and family members have faced corruption investigations, which they claim are politically motivated.
JN/APA