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)
Is Mrs. Esther Lungu competent to aduce such a prognosis of her late husband’s illness? Or she is just gropping at straws?
Cancer when diagnosed is in stages. Mr Edgar Lungu is said to have had a condition. And any diagnosis should be consistent. In the early part of his Presidency Edgar Lungu travelled to South Africa. How many visits did he make during his Presidency to address the said condition and was it cancerous then? So all these years he had a condition/cancer the family did not know?
We are told that the operation was a simply procedure. Simply procedure that led to his death?
Its not cancer that killed Lungu. From the statements made it was an infection emaneating from surgery. Something that can occur and has happened to any person.
Then why the finger pointing? Mrs Lungu we will tolerate this as its part of the stages of grief. But stop making a spectacle of the situation. It will take the dignity out of any respect people had for the man.
So you mean there are no Doctors in Zambia who can detect cancer early if not then what type of Doctors do we have in Zambia.
This is just a bizarre family. From poverty to riches through crookedness. I see a deep curse on this family. They will not live happily. They have been captured in evil dealings.
The piece of evidence that the government of President Hakainde Hichilema prevented Edgar Lungu from traveling for medicals is there in black and white. The Letter from the Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet, Dr Kalabo.
and the SC told everyone in the presence of Makebi Zulu, that government’s request to assist with medical assistance was rejected by ECL’ s doctor, so continue playing the broken record…
Someone said he was poisoned
Ba Esther shouldn’t think we are Grade 5s. ECL’s throat problem was DISCOVERED as early as 40yrs back and in 2015 after becoming president it resurfaced BECAUSE OF ANXIETY and excessive beer drinking. He got shocked that a COMBONI BOY has become a president and the money he was getting paid marveled him.
So ba ESTHER LUNGU and HaaIndingoTyrol please stop the jokes and nonsense. Cancer Diagnosed in JANUARY 2025!!! You are jokers!!
@ HaaIndingoTyrol tell Esther that she can’t live like Tasila who spent MOST OF HER LIFE AWAY FROM home(lived US). Esther your routes are here in Zambia. In SA you won’t enjoy. RECONCILE WITH HH and come home.
I totally agree with you. At that old age, Esther to start making a life in South Africa, so crazy! No friends, no relatives, nobody knows her and no Govt freebies plus no Makebi Zulu to service her! That old Arsewhore is kidding herself. She better starts living in the real world. She will come back home eventually with the body of course!
The dossier may be presented to the court but reading between the lines the plan to flee was already drawn.The stories of being illtreated is not acceptable.When PF was in power people felt it, some were beaten for wearing T shirts that were perceived to be for opposition, killings happened, imprisonments on flimsy grounds happened and many more things bad ones happened.MR ECL never received a police call out.HH was not allowed to enter in church, marketplaces or malls.He could not even distribute masks to vulnerable people when covid was on it’s high pick.The illness of ECL had it’s long history.The handlers had their own interests they could have advised him to retire from politics if they really loved him.We advised on the importance of him retiring from active politics but arrogance was on it’s high pick.Today you want to point fingers at innocent people.We see a family purchasing an expensive house in most prestigious place in South Africa now even telling us we are not coming back to Zambia.Zambians were taken for granted and used for personal gain and family empowerment.You see now that there was no national interest at heart.All these riches are now explaining why the country remained with huge debt.The right to the body against the interest of the rest of Zambians.There is no former President who becomes a private person.Dr Kaunda who was President too, never became private and not in death.The word private is not applicable to a person who held the office of President in Zambia.Thats why state security is provided to the individual.