After months of dispute, Pretoria high court says Edgar Lungu’s family must hand over his body for burial in Zambia, against their wishes.A South African court has ruled that Zambia’s former president, Edgar Lungu, who died in South Africa, should be buried in Zambia against his family’s wishes.Lungu’s burial has been the subject of a two-month dispute between Zambia’s government, which had planned a state funeral for him in Lusaka, and his family, who wanted him buried in South Africa.Lungu, Zambia’s head of state from 2015 to 2021, died in South Africa on June 5 while receiving medical treatment.South Africa’s high court halted plans for Lungu to be buried in Johannesburg on June 25, hours before a private ceremony was due to start.Zambia’s government had approached the court arguing that Lungu should be given a state funeral and buried at a designated site in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, like all other presidents since independence from the United Kingdom in 1964.Lungu’s family said the late leader did not want the current president, Hakainde Hichilema – a longstanding political rival and his successor, at his funeral.On Friday, a high court judge in Pretoria said Lungu’s body should “immediately” be handed over to a representative of Zambia’s court system for repatriation and burial in Lusaka.“A former president’s personal wishes or the wishes of his famil …
