JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – The High Court in Pretoria formally transferred the body of former president Edgar Lungu to Zambian authorities on Wednesday, clearing the way for a state funeral in Lusaka after nearly a year of legal wrangling with his family.
A bitter custody dispute between his family and the state over where he should be buried has kept his body in a South African morgue since his death on June 5, 2025.
The court transferred Lungu’s body after his family abandoned efforts to pursue their case before the South African Supreme Court of Appeal, Zambia’s Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha said in a statement.
“The mortal remains of the former president have since been relocated from Two Mountains Burial Services (PTY) Limited to a facility managed by the South African government,” Kabesha said.
Wednesday’s transfer gives effect to a ruling the Pretoria High Court handed down on August 8, 2025, in which it directed that Lungu’s body be released to the Zambian government to allow preparations for repatriation and burial in Lusaka.
Kabesha said the government would now engage with Lungu’s family to finalise burial arrangements and that the nation would be kept informed of the agreed-upon details.
Lungu, who served as Zambia’s sixth republican president from 2015 to 2021, died in South Africa while receiving medical treatment.
His death immediately triggered a stand-off between his family and the government of his successor, President Hakainde Hichilema. The family wanted Lungu buried in South Africa; the government insisted on a state funeral in Zambia.
The dispute was coloured by a long-running personal and political antagonism between the two men.
Hichilema was jailed in 2017 under Lungu’s presidency. Years later, Lungu accused Hichilema’s administration of harassment and of blocking his travel to South Africa for the very medical treatment during which he died, accusations the government denied.
Lungu’s family said publicly that the former president had not wanted Hichilema anywhere near his funeral.
When the Zambian government turned to the South African courts to secure the body, the High Court in Pretoria ruled in August 2025 that the family had no veto.
“A former president’s personal wishes or the wishes of his family cannot outweigh the right of the state to honour that individual with a state funeral,” the court said in its judgement.
The family were ordered to immediately surrender the body to Zambian authorities and subsequently sought to challenge that ruling on appeal. That effort has now been abandoned, leaving the August 2025 order to stand.
No date has yet been set for the state funeral or for the repatriation flight to Lusaka.
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