S.African court backs late Zambian leader's family in burial dispute

A court ruled Tuesday that late Zambian ex-president Edgar Lungu can be buried in South Africa, handing his family a victory in a months-long fight with the current president over his remains.

The ruling by South Africa's Supreme Court of Appeal marks the latest turn in a rancorous dispute that has left Lungu unburied more than a year after his death in South Africa at age 68.

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema's government is seeking to bring Lungu home for a state burial, while his family wants him laid to rest in South Africa.

The Court of Appeal set aside a lower-court ruling that halted a private burial at the last minute and ordered Lungu's remains repatriated to Zambia.

"A family's right to decide on the burial of a loved one falls within the inner sanctum of an individual's family life," the five-judge panel said.

The family has rejected funeral plans that would involve Hichilema, whose rivalry with Lungu defined Zambian politics for years.

Lungu, who passed away on June 5 last year, led the copper-rich country from 2015 to 2021.

He defeated Hichilema in the 2016 election and Hichilema spent four months in jail in 2017 on treason charges after his convoy failed to yield to the president's motorcade.

In the 2021 elections, Lungu lost power to Hichilema by a landslide.

Lungu's wife and children have since been charged with corruption, in what loyalists claim is part of a political vendetta.

A formal mourning period declared after Lungu's death was itself drawn into dispute.

An initial seven-day national mourning was extended by a further nine days, set to end on June 23, the day after the government had planned a state funeral.

But Hichilema ended the period four days early, citing the family's continued refusal to allow the body's return.

Lungu died of an undisclosed illness in a South African hospital. He was suffering from recurring achalasia, a condition caused by narrowing of the oesophagus.