Lungu’s body to clock 1 year in morgue if unburied in 2 months
FORMER President Edgar Lungu’s body could spend one full year in a foreign morgue if he is not buried within the next two months.
Today marks exactly 10 months since Lungu died at a clinic in South Africa on June 5, last year.
His death initially plunged the country into mourning but the burial process later turned into a prolonged legal and family-government standoff.
The drama began when the Lungu family made a sudden U-turn on plans to return his body to Zambia on June 17, 2025, despite the South African Defence Force having prepared to mount a guard of honour.
That decision disrupted the national mourning period declared by President Hakainde Hichilema and left many Zambians confused.
In the days that followed, the family announced plans to privately bury Lungu in South Africa on June 25, 2025.
However, on June 24, just a day before the planned burial, attorney general Mulilo Kabesha obtained a court order from the Pretoria High Court stopping the burial.
Kabesha argued that, as a former president, Lungu should be buried in Zambia with the dignity and honour befitting his office.
The Pretoria High Court agreed to halt the burial and set August 4, 2025 as the hearing date.
In affidavits filed before the court, Lungu’s widow Esther Lungu, her sister in law Bertha, children Tasila, Chiyeso and Dalitso Lungu and Esther’s nephew Charles Phiri said they did not want the body returned to Zambia, claiming that Lungu had made peace with dying in “exile” and did not want President Hichilema anywhere near his body.
According to the family, the former president felt abandoned by government while he was alive.
Government, however, argued that there was no credible evidence showing that Lungu wanted to be buried outside Zambia or that he did not want his successor present at his funeral.
Through court filings, government further maintained that despite political differences, the presidency must be respected and Lungu, like all former heads of state before him deserved a state funeral and burial in Zambia.
On August 8, 2025, a full bench of the Pretoria High Court unanimously ruled that Lungu’s remains should be handed over to the Zambian government for repatriation, a state funeral and burial.
But the Lungu family refused to back down and continued the legal battle.
They then challenged the ruling by appealing directly to the Constitutional Court of South Africa, arguing that the Pretoria High Court had erred in its judgment.
However, on August 26, 2025, the Constitutional Court dismissed the appeal, saying the family could not appeal directly to it and refered the matter back to the Pretoria High Court.
Following that, on September 16, 2025, the Pretoria High Court led by acting judge president Audrey Ledwaba dismissed the family’s application for leave to appeal the earlier ruling.
The family then escalated the matter to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein which in December granted the Lungus leave to appeal against the Pretoria High Court ruling that ordered the repatriation of Lungu’s body.
The family has not yet confirmed if it has filed its submissions before the Supreme Court of Appeal.
This stand off makes Lungu the only former African head of state to remain unburied 10 months after his death.
By Catherine Pule
Kalemba, April 5, 2026
ECL.was cruel man. He is not buried due to his thieving ,and tribalism.Now that he is no more,let us not think.he now an angel. The man worst President this country never had.
Do you care?
I was expecting a piece from the dedicated disciple, Mr. Anthony Mukwita.
It is not too late.
Where is the problem!? The grave is there yawning but the body is not forth coming, if it’s the wish of the family to continue withholding the body, let it remain unburied, we lose nothing, as a nation, we have moved on.