04/08/2025
2 months on, no burial for Lungu, Pretoria court decides fate today
FOR the first time in Zambia’s history, a former Head of State has remained unburied two months after his death, with the final decision now resting in the hands of a foreign court.
Tomorrow will mark exactly 60 days since former president Edgar Lungu died at a clinic in South Africa on June 5.
Despite the passage of time, there is still no grave, no national farewell and no certainty on when or where he will be buried.
Lungu’s remains continue to lie in a South African funeral home as his family and the Zambian government battle in court over his final resting place.
Today, the Pretoria High Court is expected to rule on whether the body should be buried in South Africa, as the family wishes or be repatriated to Zambia for a State funeral and interment at Embassy Park.
The legal stand off began after the Lungu family made a U-turn on plans to return his body to Zambia after they announced instead that the late former president did not want President Hakainde Hichilema involved in his funeral.
The revelation, made by family spokesperson Makebi Zulu during a memorial service in Pretoria, threw the entire national mourning process into disarray and left Zambians questioning whether their former president would ever be brought home.
In the days that followed, the family revealed plans to bury Lungu in South Africa on June 25.
But government would have none of it and attorney general Mulilo Kabesha moved to block the burial by obtaining an urgent court order in South Africa, arguing that as a former president, Lungu needed to be laid to rest in Zambia with the dignity his office deserves.
The court agreed to halt the burial and the body has remained in legal limbo ever since, with orders in place preventing its removal from South Africa.
In affidavits before court, the widow of the former Head of State, Esther Lungu, her sister in law Bertha and children, Tasila, Chiyeso and Dalitso Lungu and Esther’s nephew, Charles Phiri told the court that they did not want to return to Zambia because of persecution and claimed that Lungu had made peace with dying in ‘exile.’
They argued that Lungu’s dignity lay not in a State procession of being laid to rest by a government that didn’t look after him when he needed it the most.
Government, on the other hand, says there is no credible evidence to support the claim that Lungu wished to be buried outside the country.
Kabesha insists through court fillings that even amidst political disagreements, the presidency must be respected and Lungu, like all who held the office before him, deserves a national burial.
This morning at exactly 10:00 hours, as court resumes in Pretoria, the outcome is expected to bring finality to a standoff that has left the nation suspended between grief and uncertainty.
Both government and the family are expected to make oral submissions and the court may deliver judgement or adjourn to another day.
By Catherine P**e in Pretoria, South Africa
Kalemba, August 4, 2025
