Pretoria High Court to rule on Lungu burial dispute this week

The legal showdown over where the late former Zambian President Edgar Lungu should be laid to rest is intensifying. The SABC reports that at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, the family’s legal team, led by Advocate Casper Welgemoed, argued there is no proof Lungu expressly wished to be buried in Zambia, and contested the Zambian government’s push to repatriate his body.

The Zambian Attorney General, Mulilo Kabesha, insists Lungu qualifies for a state funeral in Zambia, according to national law that regards former heads of state as national property, entitled to burial at Lusaka’s official president cemetery with full military honours.

According to the Tanzanian Times, Lungu’s family, citing political tensions with his successor, President Hakainde Hichilema, demanded a private burial in South Africa, with no involvement from Hichilema—a stipulation they say reflects Lungu’s wishes. The dispute led to a last-minute court injunction halting a private burial that was scheduled to take place in Johannesburg, forcing mourners to substitute with a prayer service instead.

The court agreed that no burial should proceed while the matter remains unresolved. Zambia’s government has until early August to justify repatriation plans; the case is due to return for a full hearing around that time, with a judgment expected imminently