13/07/2025
FORMER First Lady Esther Lungu has submitted in court that her late husband former President Edgar Lungu was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the oesophagus by his attending medical specialists.
Mrs Lungu submits before the South African High Court that the ailment was diagnosed on his arrival in South Africa, January 2025.
But she submits that doctors stated that had Mr Lungu been accorded an opportunity to consult with the doctors in 2023, they would have removed the cancerous tumour.
As part of evidence, Mrs Lungu submitted a letter dated September 7, 2023, in which Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet Oliver Kalabo informed Mr Lungu that he had not been granted authority to travel from Zambia to South Africa for medical reviews.
In the official letter, Dr Kalabo was responding to a letter dated August 13, 2023, in which Mr Lungu sought authority to travel to South Africa for routine medical attention.
Mrs Lungu said this delayed access to specialist medical treatment contributed to the worsening the spread of the disease on her husband, who died on June 5, 2025, in South Africa during treatment.
"I pause to mention that the treating physicians expressly indicated that, had the late President Lungu been afforded the opportunity to consult with them during 2023 or, at the latest, early 2024, they would, in all probability, have been able to remove the tumour timeously, thereby avoiding any life-threatening consequences.
"Unfortunately, due to the delayed access to medical intervention, the tumour had progressed to an inoperable stage, and the only remaining course of action was to administer palliative care aimed at pain management and comfort in his final days," the widow submits in court.
This is in a case Zambia's Attorney General Mulilo Kasbesha has filed a lawsuit seeking to have Mr Lungu's remains repatriated back to Zambia for a State funeral and burial.
This follows an impasse between the Government and the Lungu family over the burial arrangements for the sixth President who served Zambia for seven years upto, 2021.
The family wants to have a private burial in South Africa but the Zambian Government contends that Mr Lungu should have a State funeral in line with established protocols.
But the Lungu family has argued that since the court case is being heard in South Africa, the law of that land should apply on who should be in charge of the deceased's burial procession.
"In the event that Zambian law does not apply, then South African law dictates that the wishes of the late President Lungu was that the Late President would be buried in Zambia based on the assumption that the Benefits Act shows the intention of being buried in Zambia;
"If the court however does not find that there is any direction from the late President, the South African law dictates that the next of kin can decide the burial and manner thereof, wherefore, the Applicant seeks to enforce an alleged agreement by the family that the late President Lungu would be buried in Zambia," she submits.
Mrs Lungu submits that the application that Mr Lungu's remains be sent back to Zambian is legally unsustainable, factually flawed and permissible in the context of the South African Constitution, 108 of 996.
"The applicant has no legal standing or enforceable right in South African law to compel the repatriation of the remains of the late President Lungu," she adds.
Credit: (Mwebantu, Sunday, 13th July,2025)
