The burial of former Zambian President Edgar Lungu, which was scheduled for June 22, has been halted by his family, who claim the government has violated funeral agreements.
All arrangements had been finalised and his body was to be returned home from South Africa on Wednesday after days of indecision between the government and the family.
Edgar Lungu, who led Zambia from 2015 to 2021, died last Thursday at the age of 68 and the government announced there would be a state funeral and declared that the official venue for mourning would be a lodge it owns in the capital, Lusaka but for Lungu’s family, they have said they are not opposed to a state funeral, but have insisted on choosing who will preside over it, family lawyer Makebi Zulu exclaimed.
The government wanted to repatriate his body from South Africa last week where Lungu died but the family intervened, wanting to organise the safe passage of the ex-leader themselves saying, ‘We are giving him full military honors, therefore we’re taking over from here’ – as if to say that ‘you have no say over what happens,'” Mr Zulu said.
The family says that the government has deviated from the original agreement and hence the family has halted the return of his body.
“It is our hope that some day, his remains will be repatriated back home and buried,” said Mr Zulu.
The government declared a seven-day national mourning period starting last Saturday.
Lungu lost the 2021 election to Hichilema by a large margin after which he stepped back from politics but returned end of last year with ambitions to vie for the presidency again but the Constitutional Court barred him from running, ruling that he had already served the maximum two terms allowed by law.
