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More than a year after the death of Zambia’s former President Edgar Lungu, his family have won their appeal to have his body buried in South Africa where he died – overturning a high court ruling that allowed the Zambian government to repatriate the corpse.<\/b><\/p>\n
It is not clear whether Tuesday’s ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein finally puts to rest the legal battle over what should happen to his remains following a long-standing feud between Lungu and his successor, President Hakainde Hichilema.<\/p>\n
All eyes will be on the Zambian government’s next move, as its lawyers await instruction.<\/p>\n
It has long maintained that, as a former head of state, Lungu should be honoured in the country.<\/p>\n
The Zambian government wished to see him laid to rest alongside his predecessors in the special presidential burial ground in the capital, Lusaka.<\/p>\n
But Lungu’s family wanted a private burial after negotiations with the government over the funeral arrangements broke down.<\/p>\n
“The very ritual intended to bring closure has, instead, pitted family against the state in a hard-fought legal dispute far from the protagonists’ home,” said Justice Raylene May Keightley in Tuesday’s judgement.<\/p>\n
Last August, the South African high court in Pretoria ruled that Zambia’s government could repatriate the body<\/a> and give him a state funeral – an outcome that left Lungu’s relatives visibly distraught in the courtroom.<\/p>\n The family appealed against the decision but, in a surprise announcement in April Zambia’s government said Lungu’s remains had been “formally transferred” to the state by the South African court.<\/p>\n But just a few hours later, the same South African court ordered the Zambian government to return the body until the matter went to court again.<\/p>\n