{"id":37832,"date":"2026-06-23T15:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=37832"},"modified":"2026-06-23T15:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:17:16","slug":"family-of-zambias-former-leader-should-choose-his-burial-site-sa-court","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/family-of-zambias-former-leader-should-choose-his-burial-site-sa-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Family of Zambia&#8217;s former leader should choose his burial site: SA court"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>A South African (SA) appeals \u200bcourt ruled on Tuesday that the family of former Zambian President \u200cEdgar Lungu should decide where he is buried, overturning a lower court&#8217;s order that Zambia&#8217;s government could repatriate Lungu&#8217;s body for a state funeral.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Lungu, who led Zambia from 2015 to \u200b2021, died in SA a year ago while undergoing medical treatment.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>His \u200bbody has remained in SA since, as his family and \u2060the Zambian government have wrangled over whether he should be buried at \u200ba site designated for Zambia&#8217;s former presidents in the capital Lusaka, or privately \u200bin SA as his family prefers.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Lungu and his successor, current President Hakainde Hichilema, were longstanding political rivals, and his family says Lungu would not have wanted Hichilema to be \u200bpresent at his funeral.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>In its judgment on Tuesday, SA&#8217;s Supreme Court of \u200bAppeal said the Zambian government had failed to show it had a legal right under \u200cSA law to override the family&#8217;s wishes on where and how Lungu should be buried.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It also rejected Zambia&#8217;s argument that a binding agreement had been reached with the family over the funeral, saying that evidence pointed to ongoing negotiations \u200brather than a \u200bfinal deal.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Zambia&#8217;s Attorney \u2060General Mulilo Kabesha did not answer a phone call seeking comment on Tuesday&#8217;s ruling.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>SA&#8217;s government has said it has \u200ban obligation to respect the wishes of Lungu&#8217;s family, \u200bbut it \u2060also said it felt a state burial in Zambia would be the most fitting outcome for the former leader.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15024,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-37832","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Former Zambian President \u200cEdgar Lungu","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37832","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":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37833,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37832\/revisions\/37833"}],"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=37832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}