AN indefinite adjournment in the Pretoria High Court has thrown the burial of former president Edgar Lungu, who died over two months ago in disarray and uncertainty.
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With the continuing legal battle between Lungu’s family and the Zambian government over where he should be buried, Lungu is unlikely to be buried anytime soon.
This morning, Judge Audrey Ledwaba announced that the appeal case about Lungu’s repatriation be put on hold with no set date for when it will continue.
This means that more than two months after Lungu’s death on June 5, 2025, his body will remain unburied, as his family continues to fight over where he should be laid to rest.
“The parties have agreed to allow the constitutional court process to unfold. And in the circumstances, we have agreed that this application for leave to appeal be postponed sine die,” Lungu family lawyer told the court.
The ruling effectively means that Zambia’s former president who died in South Africa will remain unburied while the dispute over his final resting place drags on.
Last week Friday, Lungu’s widow, former First Lady Esther Lungu, alongside six family members, petitioned South Africa’s Constitutional Court to block the Zambian government from repatriating his body for a State funeral.
In their urgent application, the family insisted that burial arrangements were a “deeply personal and private” matter, protected under South African constitutional rights to dignity and privacy.
Esther said before his death, Lungu made it clear he did not want a State organised funeral or the presence of President Hakainde Hichilema at his burial, citing their strained relationship.
The Constitutional Court is yet to decide whether it will hear the appeal, but with the Pretoria High Court stepping aside indefinitely, all attention now shifts to South Africa’s highest bench.
The applicants include Esther Lungu, her children Tasila, Dalitso and Chiyeso, Lungu’s sister Bertha, nephew Charles Phiri, and lawyer Makebi Zulu.
The respondents are the Zambian Government, South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, and funeral company Two Mountains Burial Services (Pty) Ltd.
Lungu’s body has been in South Africa since his death in June, as family and State remain locked in a war over whether he should be honoured with a State Funeral in Zambia or laid to rest in private as per his family’s wishes.
By Catherine Pule
Kalemba, August 18, 2025
