8 MONTHS LATER, NO BURIAL FOR LUNGU

8 MONTHS LATER, NO BURIAL FOR LUNGU

FOR the first time in Zambia’s and arguably Africa’s history at large, former president Edgar Lungu happens to be the only former African head of state who has remained unburied eight months after his death.

Today marks exactly 245 days since Lungu died at a clinic in South Africa on June 5 last year.

Despite the passage of time, the country still has no clue when or where the former president will be buried.

Lungu’s remains continue to lie in a South African funeral home as his family continues to fight in court over his final resting place.

While Africa has seen disputes and drama surrounding the burials of former presidents, most were laid to rest within weeks and not months.

In Zambia, when first president Kenneth Kaunda died on June 17, 2021, Kaunda’s son, Kaweche went to court to challenge government’s choice of a burial site.

He said his father’s last wish was to be buried at his residence in State Lodge, next to his wife, Betty, who died in September 2012.

However, the High Court dismissed the application and Kaunda was buried at the Embassy Park in Lusaka, on July 7, 2021.

Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe is also one of the closest comparisons.

After his death in Singapore on September 6, 2019, a bitter dispute erupted between his family and government over where he would be buried.

Government wanted him at the National Heroes Acre while the family insisted on a private burial in his rural home.

Despite the stand-off and tense negotiations, Mugabe was eventually buried 22 days later, on September 28, 2019.

Across the continent, delays in burying former leaders are usually linked to state funeral planning, repatriation of remains or negotiations over burial sites.

However, these processes typically take days or weeks and not months.

It is this context that makes the continued delay in Lungu’s burial stand out as highly unusual.

The decision on the former head of state’s final resting place now rests with the South African Supreme Court of Appeal, which has allowed the former first family to appeal the Pretoria High Court’s judgment that permitted government to repatriate the body.

The legal stand-off began after the Lungu family made a U-turn on plans to return his body to Zambia on June 17, last year, with the South African Defence Force even preparing to mount a guard of honour.

This decision by the family threw the national mourning process declared by President Hakainde Hichilema into disarray and left Zambians confused.

In the days that followed, the family revealed plans to privately bury Lungu in South Africa on June 25, 2025.

However, on June 24, when the family was certain they would bury the former president the next day, Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha surprised them with a court order in the Pretoria High Court to block the burial.

Kabesha argued that as a former president, Lungu needed to be laid to rest in Zambia with the dignity his office deserves.

The Pretoria High Court then agreed to halt the burial and set August 4, 2025 for hearing.

In affidavits before court, the widow of the former head of state, Esther Lungu, her sister-in-law Bertha, children Tasila, Chiyeso and Dalitso Lungu and Esther’s nephew Charles Phiri told the court that they did not want the body returned to Zambia because of persecution, claiming that Lungu had made peace with dying in “exile.”

They argued that Lungu did not want to have President Hichilema anywhere near his body because according to them, government had abandoned the former head of state when he was alive.

Government, on the other hand, stated that there was no credible evidence to support the claim that Lungu wished to be buried outside the country and that he didn’t want his successor at his funeral.

It further insisted through court filings that even amidst political disagreements, the presidency must be respected and Lungu, like all who held the office before him, deserved a national send off.

On August 8, 2025, a full bench of the Pretoria High Court made a unanimous ruling to have the remains handed over to the Zambian government for repatriation and a state funeral and burial.

However, the Lungu family refused to give up on the legal fight and quickly moved to challenge the judgment.

The family argued that the Pretoria High Court made a mistake in its judgment and proceeded to appeal directly to the Constitutional Court, where the appeal was dismissed on August 26, 2025, referring the family back to the Pretoria High Court and stating that they could not appeal directly to the ConCourt.

After the ConCourt dismissed the direct leave to appeal, the Pretoria High Court, led by Acting Judge president Audrey Ledwaba, on September 16, 2025 proceeded to dismiss the application by the Lungu family that sought permission to appeal the earlier ruling that allowed government to repatriate the body for a state funeral and burial in Lusaka.

The family then proceeded to apply for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

In December last year, the Supreme Court of Appeal granted the family of the late former president leave to appeal against the Pretoria High Court’s ruling that ordered the repatriation of his body.

Recently, Kabesha revealed that government had not yet received a notice of appeal from the family.

He said the family has up to February 11, 2026 to file their submissions to the Supreme Court of Appeal in line with the court order.

Kalemba