Edgar Lungu, the former president of Zambia, had his body returned to Zambia for a state funeral, according to a South African court
Edgar Lungu’s body was sent back to Zambia for a state funeral by a South African court, even though his family wanted to bury him at home.
Friday, a South African court said that Edgar Lungu’s body should be sent back to Zambia for a state funeral. The court agreed with the Zambian government that he should be buried in Zambia instead of Johannesburg, where his family wanted to put him.
Lungu was the president of Zambia from 2015 to 2021. He died on June 5 in South Africa while getting medical care. Plans to bury him in Johannesburg on June 25 were canceled just hours before the service because the government of Zambia asked the court to bring him back to Lusaka, the country’s capital, for an official state funeral.
As has been done every year since Zambia got its freedom from Britain in 1964, the government said that all former presidents should be buried at a certain place in Lusaka. His family was against the plan because they thought Lungu wouldn’t want his replacement and political rival, President Hakainde Hichilema, to be at his funeral.
In Pretoria, the judge made the decision that Lungu’s body should be given to an agent of Zambia’s court system so that it could be sent back to Zambia right away.
When the decision was read, Bertha Lungu, Lungu’s sister, started crying. Mulilo Kabesha, Zambia’s attorney general, praised the decision, calling it “a decision that honors the dignity of our late president.”
People both liked and didn’t like Lungu’s leadership. Some people praised him for starting a huge road-building program, but others said he was bad for racking up a big national debt that Zambia is still struggling to pay off.
