JOHANNESBURG, South Africa- The Zambian government on Tuesday launched a last ditch court application to stop the planned burial of former president Edgar Lungu in South Africa on Wednesday.
Zambia’s attorney general Mulilo Kabesha filed a public interest lawsuit challenging the Lungu family’s plans to bury him in Johannesburg in their row with the government.
Lungu died at the Mediclinic Medforum Hospital in Pretoria on June 5 at the age of 68.
The former president’s family said it was his dying wish that his bitter political foe Hakainde Hichilema, the current Zambian president, “should not come anywhere near his body.”
The Zambian government’s insistence on a state funeral presided over by Hichilema sparked a more than two-week standoff leading to the family’s shock decision to bury him in South Africa.
In his urgent court filing, Kabesha is suing several members of Lungu’s family including former first lady Esther Lungu, four of Lungu’s children along with family lawyer Makebi Zulu and the company running the morgue where his remains habe been kept.
He is seeking an interim court order to prevent the burial until all disputes regarding Lungu’s final resting place are resolved – “specifically, whether he should be interred in Zambia with full military honours, customs, and traditions, as mandated by Zambian law and in keeping with public interest.”
The attorney general contends that a state funeral for a former head of state is a formal public event governed by strict military protocols and intended to honour individuals of national significance.
Kabesha further argues that, even if it were true— a point he denies— that the late president wished not to have a state funeral, “such personal wishes must yield to the greater public interest.”
Kabesha also cites legal precedent, noting that the Zambian courts previously set aside the burial wishes of the nation’s founding president, Kenneth Kaunda, in favour of public interest considerations relating to interment at Embassy Park in Lusaka.
Hearing of the application is expected to be heard at 8AM on Wednesday.
The post Zambian government in last ditch court bid to stop Lungu burial in South Africa appeared first on Zimbabwe News Now.