JOHANNESBURG – A South African court has blocked the repatriation of former Zambian president Edgar Lungu’s remains, halting fresh plans for a state funeral and deepening a dispute that has dragged on for nearly 10 months.
The High Court in Pretoria granted an urgent injunction on Tuesday after Zambia’s attorney general Mulilo Kabesha announced that a court had formally handed the remains to the government following the family’s failure to pursue an appeal.
Lungu’s family swiftly sought the injunction, with the court ordering the Zambian government to return the remains to a private funeral home or another facility of the family’s choosing. The order will remain in force until 21 May, Judge Rochelle Francis-Subbiah said.
It marks the latest setback for President Hakainde Hichilema’s government, which wants Lungu buried in Zambia, against the family’s preference for South Africa, where he died in hospital on 5 June last year.
Lungu (68) was a political rival to Hichilema, to whom he lost power by a landslide in 2021. His wife and children have since been charged with corruption in what loyalists claim is part of a political vendetta.
The family has repeatedly blocked efforts to repatriate the body, saying Lungu would not have wanted Hichilema at his funeral, setting off a protracted legal battle. Zambia in turn moved to halt his burial in South Africa while funeral proceedings were already underway.
In August, a Pretoria court ruled that Zambian law prevailed and ordered the family to surrender the body to authorities, a decision the family then sought to challenge through the courts.
A formal mourning period declared after Lungu’s death was itself drawn into dispute. An initial seven-day national mourning was extended by a further nine days, set to end on 23 June, the day after the government had planned a state funeral. But Hichilema ended the period four days early, citing the family’s continued refusal to allow the body’s return.
The cause of the former president’s death was not announced but he had been receiving specialised treatment in a clinic in Pretoria, his Patriotic Front party said. He was suffering from recurring achalasia, a condition caused by narrowing of the oesophagus.
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