South African court backs Lungu family in burial dispute

South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal has sided with Edgar Lungu’s family in a bitter burial fight that became a test of who gets to control a former president’s legacy after death, the relatives, the state, or the courts. The ruling overturned an earlier Pretoria High Court decision that had backed Zambia’s bid to bring Lungu home for a state funeral in Lusaka.

Lungu died on 5 June 2025 in Pretoria, South Africa, at the age of 68 while receiving medical treatment. He had led Zambia from 2015 to 2021 and lost the 2021 election to Hakainde Hichilema, whose government argued that Lungu should be buried at Embassy Park in Lusaka with military honours alongside other former presidents.

The family said Lungu wanted a private burial in South Africa and did not want Hichilema at his funeral, or “anywhere near” his body. That argument carried weight with the appeals court, which said the family had the final say over burial arrangements and found no binding agreement requiring a state funeral in Zambia.

The dispute has exposed the depth of Zambia’s political fracture, especially between the former ruling Patriotic Front and Hichilema’s administration. What should have been a solemn state occasion instead became a proxy battle over memory, power, and the meaning of presidential dignity in a country where former leaders continue to shape public life long after they leave office.

Hichilema had publicly said he wanted Lungu buried in his homeland and apologized to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and the South African government for the inconvenience caused by the standoff. Zambia’s push for a formal repatriation, complete with military honours, stood in direct conflict with the family’s insistence that a private burial better reflected Lungu’s wishes.

The prolonged fight left Lungu’s remains in South Africa for roughly a year, with the legal battle moving from Pretoria to Bloemfontein as both sides pressed their claims. For Zambia, the ruling underscored the limits of state power over a former head of state. For Lungu’s family, it secured authority over the final chapter of a presidency that ended in defeat but has continued to reverberate across the country.