Legal Wrangling Over Lungu’s Final Resting Place Deepens Divisions
By Lusaka Times Observer
PRETORIA/LUSAKA — The deeply personal question of where former President Edgar Lungu should be buried has landed back in a Pretoria courtroom, where lawyers yesterday sparred over family wishes and state protocol, leaving the issue more tangled than ever.
The Gauteng High Court had already ruled that his body be sent home to Zambia for a state-assisted funeral, but the latest hearing revealed just how raw the feelings are on both sides. The Lungu family’s legal team, which includes prominent South African lawyer Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, argued passionately for the privacy of earlier burial arrangements made by the former president himself. Meanwhile, lawyers for the state insisted that honouring a former head of state is a national matter, not a private family affair.
At the heart of the confusion is a glaring gap in Zambia’s laws. The often-mentioned 1993 Benefits of Former Presidents Act is silent on funerals, dealing only with pensions. This legal vacuum has forced the courts to step into a deeply political and emotional dispute.
The state’s counsel pressed the point that the presidency is bigger than any one person. They argued that the ceremonial send-off for a leader is a duty of the nation, warning that letting a family’s private plans override this would “strip the office of its dignity.”
On the other side, the family’s lawyers, led by Ngcukaitobi, countered that the state cannot simply steamroll the clearly stated wishes of a man and his kin. They framed it as a fundamental matter of family rights being trampled by government overreach.
Complicating the state’s argument is its reliance on Lungu’s presidential immunity. That shield was looking increasingly shaky before his death, with loud calls in Lusaka for Parliament to revoke it, making it a fragile foundation for the government’s case.
A further twist is that a South African court isn’t bound by Zambian law. The judges in Pretoria are weighing principles of international diplomacy and respect between nations, not statutes from Lusaka.
No matter the verdict, someone will leave feeling wronged. A win for the state will leave the Lungu family feeling their rights were disregarded. A win for the family will be seen by the government as a slight against the sanctity of Embassy Park, the official burial ground for Zambia’s presidents.
This is a painful replay of history we’ve seen before. The Kaunda family was overruled for Embassy Park, while Mugabe’s family in Zimbabwe won their fight for a private burial. Tanzania, wisely, passed a clear law to avoid these exact fights.
Many are now wondering if more courtroom battles are the answer. A compromise, forged through quiet dialogue rather than loud legal arguments, might be the only way to truly honour both the man and the office he held. It could find a way to respect the symbolism of a national site while granting the family the dignity of choice.
Until that middle ground is found, President Lungu’s body remains in limbo—a stark and sad symbol of a nation that never got around to making a simple law for saying a proper, and definitive, goodbye to its leaders.