JOHANNESBURG — Nearly 10 months have passed since former Zambian President Edgar Lungu died in a South African medical facility, yet his remains continue to be the center of an extraordinary legal dispute that has prevented his burial.
The deceased leader’s relatives have insisted on laying him to rest in South Africa due to the intense animosity between Lungu and Zambia’s current President Hakainde Hichilema. Meanwhile, Zambian officials have pursued legal action to gain control of the body and bring it home for an official state ceremony.
The ongoing saga took another dramatic turn this Wednesday when Zambian authorities announced they had secured possession of Lungu’s remains with help from South African officials, only to have a judge immediately order the body returned to the funeral facility where the family had been keeping it.
The 68-year-old former president passed away on June 5 of the previous year from an undetermined medical condition while receiving treatment in South Africa. His relatives immediately made arrangements to conduct burial services there, declining to transport his body back to Zambia for any ceremony that would include Hichilema’s participation.
According to a family representative, this decision honored Lungu’s final request that Hichilema should not come “anywhere near his body” during burial proceedings. In response, the Zambian administration filed legal proceedings to obtain custody, claiming that conducting a state funeral served the country’s best interests.
Officials in Zambia have already designated and prepared a burial site for Lungu at a national cemetery where other former presidents rest. That grave site continues to sit vacant.
The relationship between Lungu and his successor Hichilema had been marked by deep hostility throughout their years as political opponents in the southern African country.
In 2016, Lungu emerged victorious over Hichilema in the presidential race. The following year, Hichilema spent four months behind bars on treason accusations after he allegedly refused to move aside for the presidential convoy on a public road. Human rights organizations criticized the arrest, and authorities eventually dropped the charges and freed him.
Following Hichilema’s rise to power in 2021, Lungu maintained that law enforcement officers were targeting him with harassment and had essentially confined him to his residence. His relatives stated that officials temporarily blocked him from traveling abroad to receive medical care. The Hichilema administration rejected these accusations.
Reports indicate that Lungu managed to reach South Africa by quietly making his way to an airport and purchasing his airline ticket on the spot.
The Zambian government’s legal effort to claim Lungu’s remains disrupted funeral arrangements that his family had scheduled in South Africa last June. The court filing forced family members, who had already dressed in mourning clothes for the service, to abandon the ceremony and rush to a courthouse for an emergency hearing.
A South African judge eventually sided with the Zambian government’s position and ordered the body’s return to Zambia. The court established May 12 as the deadline for transferring custody.
Late Wednesday, Zambian officials declared they had successfully taken possession of Lungu’s body, moving it from a private mortuary in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital, to a different location while preparing for transport back to Zambia.
However, a court quickly mandated that the government immediately return the remains to the family, finding officials in contempt for attempting to remove Lungu’s body ahead of the court-established timeline.
Additional legal proceedings may now emerge after the judge ordered both Zambian officials and the South African authorities who assisted in moving the body to explain why they should not face contempt charges.
