{"id":35822,"date":"2026-05-29T14:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T12:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=35822"},"modified":"2026-05-29T17:18:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:18:59","slug":"lungu-family-appeals-for-different-outcome-in-burial-dispute-case","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/lungu-family-appeals-for-different-outcome-in-burial-dispute-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Lungu family appeals for different outcome in burial dispute case"},"content":{"rendered":"
The family of the late former Zambian President, Edgar Lungu, has turned to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, South Africaa (SA)\u00a0 for a different conclusion over the burial of their beloved. The family argues that the High Court in Pretoria erred when it upheld the Zambian Government\u2019s claims to repatriate and bury Lungu\u2019s remains in a state funeral in Zambia. The family contends that judgment is wrong because Lungu\u2019s widow and her children should enjoy exclusive rights to decide how and where to bury the late President.<\/div>\n
The family says that although it engaged with the Zambian government for a possible state funeral in Zambia, those negotiations broke down.<\/div>\n
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They argue that the Government insisted on imposing a state funeral in Zambia that would be presided over by the current president of the country.<\/div>\n
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The Lungu Family ultimately resolved to bury the late President Lungu in a private ceremony in SA, which it says was in keeping with his wishes.<\/div>\n
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However, the government contends that it has a right to the relief it sought because the Family initially agreed that the late President\u2019s body be repatriated to Zambia for purposes of a state funeral and burial thereafter.<\/div>\n
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The Lungu family lawyer, Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, has argued that the late\u00a0Lungu had explicitly opposed any involvement by current Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema in his funeral arrangements, citing long-standing personal and political tensions between the two leaders.<\/div>\n
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Ngcukaitobi further told the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein that the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria erred in finding that the Zambian government had established a clear legal right to repatriate Lungu\u2019s remains.<\/div>\n
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The case comes as Zambia prepares to mark the first anniversary of Lungu\u2019s death on June 5, with the dispute over where and how he should be laid to rest still unresolved.<\/div>\n
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Ngcukaitobi says, \u201con page 187, what we know about Lungu\u2019s own wishes appears at page 187, paragraph 3.34 of the affidavit. He did not want the current President of Zambia, Hichilema, to have anything to do with his body or his funeral. He told his confidant, Dr. Sachana, who is a lecturer at Stellenbosch University, that he does not wish for Hichilema to have any role in his funeral. That\u2019s largely because by the time Lungu came to SA, there were deep-seated political and personal problems between him and the current government of Zambia\u201d.<\/div>\n
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He further says. \u201cWe also know that the wishes of the widow, Esther Lungu, my client, and the wishes of the children and the immediate family are that Hichilema\u00a0of Zambia should have nothing to do with the body. We also know that the family does not want to be dictated to by the Zambian government about where the body ought to be buried. If they elect to bury the body in SA, which is what they intended to do on June 17, 2025, they do not want the Zambian government to interfere with that decision\u201d.<\/div>\n
\u201cIf they elect to bury the body in Zambia, they also want that decision to be made by them. So the problem with the high court\u2019s decision, the departure problem with the high court\u2019s decision, was that it did not adjudicate the constitutional rights that were pleaded by the family and even its approach to the foreign law discussion was mistaken because it did not do what this court recently held in the MTN case, which is you proceed from the premise of the SA constitution. and we know this was pleaded expressly from page 170 of the pleadings at paragraph 2.3.1,\u201d he adds.<\/div>\n
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–SABC–<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15024,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-35822","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The family says that although it engaged with the Zambian government for a possible state funeral in Zambia, those negotiations broke down.","published_date":"","news_description":"The family says that although it engaged with the Zambian government for a possible state funeral in Zambia, those negotiations broke down.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35824,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35822\/revisions\/35824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}