From Post Presidential Persecution to Posthumous Power Struggle
….bow the family can bury with the dignity he deserved….
South Africa – 23rd June 2026
In a landmark ruling delivered on 23 June 2026, South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal delivered a stinging rebuke to the Zambian Government, upholding the Lungu family’s right to bury former President Edgar Lungu in South Africa far from the state funeral spectacle Lusaka demanded. The judgment exposes a darker story: how Zambia’s ruling establishment hounded its former leader in life, only to claim his body in death.
The mistreatment began in earnest after President Lungu, who served as Zambia’s sixth president from 2015 to 2021, dared to return to active politics following the Patriotic Front’s electoral defeat.
• September 2023: Lungu boarded a flight to Seoul for the HWPL World Peace Summit. Zambian security dragged him off the plane, citing fears he would use the platform for political activity an act the Benefits of Former Presidents Act supposedly prohibited.
• Days later: Police blocked him from attending a church service in Ndola, going so far as to cancel the entire event.
• Travel Ban: The government imposed a humiliating protocol requiring explicit permission from President Hakainde Hichilema for any international travel. When President Lungu sought approval for medical treatment in South Africa, it was coldly denied with no reasons given.
By late October 2023, the axe fell completely. A formal letter stripped President Lungu of all former presidential benefits pension, security, staff, office, and transport effective immediately. His official office was shuttered. The message was unmistakable: You are no longer one of us.
By late 2024, President Lungu’s health deteriorated rapidly. In January 2025, during a visit by a UN Special Rapporteur, he slipped out of Zambia on a commercial flight without government approval, accompanied by his wife Esther and family members. In South Africa, doctors delivered the devastating diagnosis terminal oesophageal cancer. The delay in treatment had made it inoperable. Lungu never returned home.
According to his widow and family, in his final weeks President Lungu was unequivocal, he wanted no part of the Zambian Government especially the President anywhere near his body or funeral. He described it as “immoral” and “disrespectful” to allow those who had forsaken him in life to preside over his death as “spoils of war.”
After Lungu’s death on 5 June 2025, the Zambian Government dispatched delegations and pushed aggressively for a state funeral in Lusaka’s Embassy Park, complete with full protocol and President Hichilema’s central role. Negotiations collapsed. The family insisted on honouring President Lungu’s wishes. When talks failed, Zambia rushed to the Pretoria High Court, which initially sided with them.
The Supreme Court of Appeal overturned that decision. In a powerful majority judgment by Keightley JA, the court ruled that:
• The family’s constitutional rights to dignity, privacy, and family autonomy under South African law prevail.
• No expert evidence proved Zambian custom gave the state automatic burial rights.
• The alleged “agreement” for repatriation was never conclusively reached the family’s version stood.
• President Lungu had been treated as persona non grata in his own country; his burial wishes deserved respect.
The court dismissed Zambia’s application and awarded costs against them.
This is more than a burial dispute. It is the story of a former president stripped of dignity while alive, then fought over like a trophy after death. The Lungu family’s victory affirms a basic principle: even heads of state are entitled to a final say over their legacy, and families cannot be steamrolled by state power when personal rights and expressed wishes are at stake.
As Zambia mourns (or exploits) one of its own, Edgar Lungu will rest according to the wishes of those who stood by him when the state did not. A quiet but potent rebuke to those who denied him exit and tried to control his entrance into eternity.
From Post Presidential Persecution to Posthumous Power Struggle….bow the family can bury with the dignity he deserved
