JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -A South African court prevented Zambia’s former president Edgar Lungu from being buried in Johannesburg just before the ceremony was due to be held on Wednesday, following weeks of feuding between his family and the Zambian government.
Lungu, who was Zambia’s head of state from 2015 to 2021, died in South Africa on June 5 while receiving medical treatment.
He and his successor, current President Hakainde Hichilema, were longstanding political rivals, and Lungu’s family said he did not want Hichilema to be present at his funeral.
Hichilema’s government, however, wants Lungu’s body brought back to Zambia for a state funeral and approached Pretoria High Court to try to block his burial.
Deputy Judge President Aubrey Phago Ledwaba told the court on Wednesday that lawyers for Lungu’s family and Zambia’s government had agreed that the burial would not go ahead for now. The Zambian government has until July 4 to explain why it wants to repatriate Lungu’s body.
Zambian Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha said negotiations with Lungu’s family would continue before the next court hearing.
Makebi Zulu, a Lungu family spokesman, said they did not believe Hichilema would give Lungu a dignified send-off.
Lungu had hoped to make a bid to return to office in next year’s presidential election, but Zambia’s Constitutional Court last year ruled he would be ineligible, because he had already served two terms.
South Africa’s government has said it has an obligation to respect the wishes of Lungu’s family, but it feels a state burial in Zambia would be the most fitting outcome.
All of Zambia’s other presidents since its independence from Britain in 1964 have been buried at a designated site in the capital, Lusaka.
Analysts say Lungu’s legacy as Zambian president was chequered. He was praised for a massive road-building programme but also ran the country’s public finances deeply into the red.
Instead of the Johannesburg burial his family had scheduled for Wednesday, a prayer service was held at a Catholic cathedral.
(Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov and Alessandro Parodi in Johannesburg, and Chris Mfula in Lusaka;Editing by Alexander Winning and Joe Bavier)
