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Mourners attend a service for Zambia's former president Edgar Lungu after the Pretoria high court halted the planned burial, in Johannesburg, on June 25. Picture: REUTERS/SIPHIWE SIBEKO
Mourners attend a service for Zambia's former president Edgar Lungu after the Pretoria high court halted the planned burial, in Johannesburg, on June 25. Picture: REUTERS/SIPHIWE SIBEKO

The Pretoria high court prevented Zambia’s former president Edgar Lungu from being buried in Johannesburg just before the ceremony was due to be held on Wednesday, after weeks of feuding between his family and the Zambian government.

Lungu, who was Zambia’s head of state from 2015 to 2021, died in SA on June 5 while receiving medical treatment.

He and his successor, President Hakainde Hichilema, were long-standing political rivals, and Lungu’s family said he did not want Hichilema to be present at his funeral.

Hichilema’s government, however, wants Lungu’s body brought back to Zambia for a state funeral and approached the high court to try to block his burial.

Deputy judge president Aubrey Phago Ledwaba told the court on Wednesday that lawyers for Lungu’s family and Zambia’s government had agreed that the burial would not go ahead for now. The Zambian government has until July 4 to explain why it wants to repatriate Lungu’s body.

Zambian attorney-general Mulilo Kabesha said negotiations with Lungu’s family would continue before the next court hearing.

Makebi Zulu, a Lungu family spokesperson, said they did not believe Hichilema would give Lungu a dignified burial.

Lungu had hoped to make a bid to return to office in next year’s presidential election, but Zambia’s Constitutional Court last year ruled he would be ineligible, because he had already served two terms.

SA’s government has said a state burial in Zambia would be the most fitting outcome, despite acknowledging its obligation to respect the wishes of Lungu’s family.

All Zambia’s other presidents since its independence from Britain in 1964 have been buried at a designated site in the capital, Lusaka.

Analysts said Lungu had a chequered legacy as president. He was praised for a huge road-building programme, but also increased public debt.

Instead of the Johannesburg burial his family had scheduled for Wednesday, a prayer service was held at a Catholic cathedral.

Reuters 

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