The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has ruled in favour of the family of former Zambian president Edgar Lungu, allowing his burial to take place in South Africa.
“The Zambian government’s failure to establish a right under either the common law or contract to override the family’s burial decision is fatal to its case. The high court erred in finding that the Zambian government was entitled to relief. It ought properly to have dismissed the application.
“The appeal must be upheld and the order of the high court set aside. There is no reason why costs should not follow the result,” Judge Raylene Keightley said.
The latest judgment overturns a 2025 high court order that authorised the Zambian government to repatriate Lungu’s remains for a state funeral. The high court argued that it could not bar the Zambian government from repatriating one of its own citizens.
However, the SCA found that, in the absence of a binding agreement between the state and family, the rights to “dignity, privacy and family autonomy” outweighed the state’s interest in determining burial arrangements.
The SCA held that the high court had erred in granting the Zambian government authority over the matter.
The ruling follows a protracted dispute after Lungu’s 5 June 2025 death in South Africa. The Zambian government sought to return his body for a state funeral, while his family opposed the move, saying Lungu’s wish to be buried in South Africa.
The family also argued that Lungu did not want his political rival and successor, President Hakainde Hichilema, to be involved in his funeral.
“One does not have to scratch too far beneath the surface to appreciate that from at least September 2023 the late former president Lungu viewed himself to be persona non grata in his own country. I make no comment on whether he was justified in his views but what is certain is that it was these experiences by the late former president Lungu that explain the strong views he expressed prior to his death about his burial [in South Africa],” Keightley said.
The SCA judgment effectively ends the government’s bid to repatriate the body and affirms the family’s right to determine the former president’s final resting place.
