{"id":55173,"date":"2025-08-08T16:24:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T16:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/win-for-zambian-gov-t-as-south-african-court-orders-repatriation-of-edgar-lungu\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T16:05:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T16:05:35","slug":"win-for-zambian-gov-t-as-south-african-court-orders-repatriation-of-edgar-lungu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/win-for-zambian-gov-t-as-south-african-court-orders-repatriation-of-edgar-lungu\/","title":{"rendered":"Win for Zambian gov&#8217;t as South African court orders repatriation of Edgar Lungu\u2019s body"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lungu, who served as Zambia\u2019s head of state from 2015 to 2021, died on June 5, 2025, in Pretoria while undergoing medical treatment. Plans for his burial in Johannesburg on June 25 were halted by the Pretoria High Court just hours before a private funeral ceremony was set to begin.<\/p>\n<p>The Zambian government had approached the South African court to block the burial in South Africa, arguing that Lungu, as a former president, should be accorded a state funeral in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, consistent with the tradition for all presidents since independence in 1964.<\/p>\n<p>The dispute arose because Lungu\u2019s family wished to bury him in South Africa without the presence of his successor, President Hakainde Hichilema, a longtime political rival. The family claimed Lungu did not want Hichilema to attend the funeral. However, the Zambian government insisted that as a former head of state, Lungu belonged to the nation and should be honoured with a state funeral at a designated site in Lusaka.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, the judge in Pretoria ruled that Lungu\u2019s remains must be handed over to a representative of Zambia\u2019s court system to facilitate repatriation. The decision brought relief to the government but was an emotional moment for Lungu\u2019s family, with his sister Bertha Lungu visibly moved by the ruling.<\/p>\n<p>The conflict over Lungu\u2019s final resting place is the latest chapter in a prolonged political feud between the former president and his successor, which has now extended beyond Lungu\u2019s death. <\/p>\n<p>Initially, both the government and the family had agreed on a state funeral, but disagreements over the ceremony\u2019s logistics and symbolism led to the family planning a private burial in South Africa. This prompted the government to seek legal intervention to reclaim control of the process.<\/p>\n<p>In its court filing, the Zambian government argued that private wishes should not supersede national interests, citing a precedent from 2021 when the family of Zambia\u2019s founding president, Kenneth Kaunda, also opposed a state funeral, but the court overruled them.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-92324 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/e037d7b0-51b2-11f0-b52c-c776a241c026.jpg-8e19a.jpg\" alt=\"Lungu died on June 5, 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 on Friday ordered that the body of former Zambian President Edgar Lungu be repatriated to Zambia for a state funeral, ruling in favour of the Zambian government in a dispute with Lungu\u2019s family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000092323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[192],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-55173","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":2000092323,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/e037d7b0-51b2-11f0-b52c-c776a241c026new-5236b.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-5236b.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/e037d7b0-51b2-11f0-b52c-c776a241c026new-5236b.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/e037d7b0-51b2-11f0-b52c-c776a241c026new-5236b.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/e037d7b0-51b2-11f0-b52c-c776a241c026new-5236b.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/e037d7b0-51b2-11f0-b52c-c776a241c026new-5236b.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55173","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=55173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000092323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55173"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=55173"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=55173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}