South African Court Lets Lungu Family Bury Former Zambian President in Pretoria, Rejects Government Bid for Lusaka State Funeral

Edgar Lungu's family won an appeal Tuesday at South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein to bury the former Zambian president in the country where he died. @BBCWorld reported that the ruling overturned a high court decision allowing the Zambian government to repatriate the body.

Justice Raylene May Keightley wrote that Lungu "viewed himself to be persona non grata in his own country" of Zambia and "felt that he would not be afforded a dignified send-off" if his successor were present.

Lungu died at age 68 of an undisclosed illness at a clinic in Pretoria more than a year before the latest ruling. He served as Zambia's president from 2015 until 2021. His family has said Lungu did not want President Hakainde Hichilema at his funeral or "anywhere near" his body.

Hichilema unseated Lungu in the 2021 election after years of public disputes between the two men. The Zambian government maintains that Lungu, as a former head of state, should receive a state funeral and burial in the special presidential ground in Lusaka. Last August a Pretoria high court authorized repatriation, but the family appealed.

In April the government announced that Lungu's remains had been formally transferred to the state, only for the same court to order their return hours later pending further proceedings.