{"id":54653,"date":"2025-06-25T16:34:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T16:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/south-african-court-halts-burial-of-zambia-s-ex-president-edgar-lungu-amid\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T16:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T16:03:12","slug":"south-african-court-halts-burial-of-zambia-s-ex-president-edgar-lungu-amid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/south-african-court-halts-burial-of-zambia-s-ex-president-edgar-lungu-amid\/","title":{"rendered":"South African court halts burial of Zambia\u2019s ex-president Edgar Lungu amid family-gov\u2019t dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pretoria High Court intervened following an urgent application by the Zambian government, which opposed the family\u2019s decision to bury the late president abroad without state involvement. <\/p>\n<p>The court said the burial would not proceed, citing an \u201cagreement between the parties,\u201d and scheduled a special hearing on the matter for August 4 2025. <\/p>\n<p>This means Lungu\u2019s remains will not be laid to rest until at least that date.<\/p>\n<p>Lungu died on 5 June 2025 in Pretoria at the age of 68, where he had been undergoing specialised treatment for an undisclosed illness. A former leader of the Patriotic Front, he served as Zambia\u2019s sixth president from 2015 to 2021 before losing the presidency to Hakainde Hichilema by a wide margin.<\/p>\n<p>The dispute over his final resting place is the latest chapter in a long-running feud between Lungu and President Hichilema\u2014one that appears to have outlived the former leader. <\/p>\n<p>While Lungu\u2019s family insists he wished to exclude his successor from his funeral, the government maintains that, as a former head of state, he belongs to the nation and should be accorded a state funeral in Zambia.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, both sides agreed on a state funeral. However, the deal collapsed over disagreements on the logistics and symbolism of the ceremony, leading the family to plan a private burial in South Africa instead. This move prompted the government to seek legal redress in South Africa to reclaim control over the burial process.<\/p>\n<p>In its filing, the Zambian government argued that private wishes should not override national interest, citing the precedent set with Zambia\u2019s founding president Kenneth Kaunda, whose family also objected to a state burial in 2021, but was overruled.<\/p>\n<p>Zambia\u2019s Attorney General Mulilo D Kabesha has until July 4 to submit an amended motion supporting Lungu\u2019s repatriation. The former president\u2019s family has until July 11 to respond with their opposing papers. The Pretoria High Court will then hear the case in August and decide who has the final say over the burial and who will bear the costs of the legal proceedings.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-89819 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/e037d7b0-51b2-11f0-b52c-c776a241c026.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"Lungu died on 5 June 2025 in Pretoria at the age of 68, where he had been undergoing specialised treatment for an undisclosed illness. \" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A South African court has blocked the burial of Zambia\u2019s former President Edgar Lungu, moments before a private funeral ceremony was set to take place in Pretoria, deepening a tense and emotional standoff between Lungu\u2019s family and the Zambian government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000089818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-54653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-wycliffe-nyamasege"],"bylines":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"contributors":[{"id":192,"name":"Wycliffe Nyamasege","slug":"wycliffe-nyamasege","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":131}],"featured_image":{"id":2000089818,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/e037d7b0-51b2-11f0-b52c-c776a241c026new.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/e037d7b0-51b2-11f0-b52c-c776a241c026new.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/e037d7b0-51b2-11f0-b52c-c776a241c026new.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/e037d7b0-51b2-11f0-b52c-c776a241c026new.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/e037d7b0-51b2-11f0-b52c-c776a241c026new.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/e037d7b0-51b2-11f0-b52c-c776a241c026new.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000089818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54653"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=54653"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=54653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}