'The man belonged to the nation' - Lungu to be buried in Lusaka
The Zambian government has won its application to repatriate and bury former president Edgar Lungu in his home country.
Lungu's family sought to bury him in South Africa, citing his alleged wish not to have the current president, Hakainde Hichilema, preside over his funeral.
The former Zambian president died in a South African hospital in June, at the age of 68.
READ: Former Zambian president Edgar Lungu dies at 68
Nearly two weeks after his death was announced, Lungu's family refused to release his body to the South African military at the last minute in protest against the Zambian government's arrangements, including that President Hichilema would receive it upon arrival.
The family's attempt to hold a private funeral in Gauteng was halted at the eleventh hour, after the government approached the courts.
In a ruling delivered as Lungu's widow, Esther, and other mourners were already gathered in the church, the High Court judge said that, after an agreement between the parties, "respondents undertake not to proceed with the funeral or burial of the late president".
On Monday, the Zambian government's lawyers argued that the family had failed to demonstrate that it was Lungu's last wish to be buried in South Africa.
They also outlined an earlier agreement between the two parties, after a compromised was reached over Hichilema's role at the state funeral, which the family had reneged on.
Acting judge president Aubrey Ledwaba delivered the ruling in the High Court in Pretoria on Friday: "It is ordered that the applicant is entitled to repatriate the body of the late President Edgar Lungu for a state funeral and burial thereafter in Lusaka, in the Republic in Zambia. The eighth respondent is authorised and ordered, upon service of the court order by the sheriff of this honourable court, to immediately surrender the body of the late President Lungu to a representative of the Zambian High Court."
Reacting to the ruling, Zambian attorney general Mulilo Kabesha said it was not a victory, but rather that it made "good sense" for the former president to be buried in the country of the people he led.
"If you go to Zambia, they call him father of the nation. If you are the father of the nation, you can't restrict yourself to your immediate family. The man belonged to the nation, and so he is going to be buried in Zambia. We appreciate the judgment of the court. It is a sound judgment."
Kabesha could not comment on the next logistical steps ahead of Lungu's burial.
ALSO READ:
