Former Zambian president Edgar Lungu’s body missing after ‘unauthorised’ removal from Pretoria mortuary
The body of former Zambian president Edgar Chagwa Lungu has gone “missing” in South Africa after being removed from a Pretoria funeral home by police in apparent defiance of a court order, deepening a bitter cross-border dispute between his family and the Zambian government over where and how he should be buried.
Lungu’s remains have been trapped in legal limbo for months as his family fights to prevent repatriation to Lusaka, insisting he should be laid to rest privately in South Africa, where he died last year. The Zambian state, by contrast, has pushed for a full state funeral and burial at Embassy Park, the burial site for former heads of state.
After a series of legal skirmishes, the South African government secured a high court order earlier this year authorising a state funeral and burial in Lusaka. That order permitted the repatriation of Lungu’s body to Zambia, on condition that two family members and his doctor accompanied the coffin. The family has since lodged an appeal, effectively suspending the implementation of the order pending the outcome.
Until this week, Lungu’s body had been kept at the Two Mountains Burial Services mortuary in Pretoria while the legal process unfolded. The family believed that, under the existing court ruling and their appeal, no move could be made without their knowledge and participation.
That changed on Wednesday, when they were informed that the South African Police Service (SAPS) had removed the body from the facility.
After allegedly being taken by the police from the Two Mountains Burial Services on Wednesday, the body of late former Zambian president Edgar Chagwa Lungu has gone “missing”.
According to the family’s legal team, this removal was done without their consent and in violation of the conditions set out in the earlier high court order.
Attorney Eddie Mashele, who represents Lungu’s relatives in the South African litigation, said they rushed to court on Wednesday night when they learnt what had happened.
“We managed to get an urgent court order at 10pm on Wednesday directing the SAPS to bring the body back to Two Mountains or any other private mortuary in Pretoria,” said attorney Eddie Mashele.
In a draft order, Pretoria high court judge Rochelle Francis-Subbiah directed SAPS, the national police commissioner, the minister of police, and the Zambian government to return Lungu’s remains to Two Mountains Burial Services “or any mortuary nominated by the family”.
This meant that, on paper, the body was to be brought back into the custody of a private Pretoria mortuary under the control of Lungu’s family while the legal battle continued. But when Mashele and family members began making inquiries on Thursday morning, they discovered that the situation was far from clear.
But by yesterday morning, Mashele said efforts to locate the body had failed.
At the time of going to press, it remained uncertain where Lungu’s remains were being held, and by whom, despite the urgent court directive.
The dispute over Lungu’s final resting place has been simmering since his death on 5 June last year, at the age of 68, after he received medical treatment in South Africa.
Lungu died on June 5 last year, aged 68, after receiving medical treatment in SA. His family has insisted on a private burial in SA, saying they feared persecution and did not want current Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema involved.
The family’s stance reflects deep political tensions in Zambia, where relations between Lungu, who led the country from 2015 to 2021, and his successor, President Hakainde Hichilema, have long been fraught. Lungu’s relatives argue that returning his body to Zambia would expose them to political harassment and allow a government they distrust to take charge of the funeral and burial arrangements.
The Zambian government, however, has taken the position that Lungu’s status as a former head of state entitles him to an official send-off and burial in the national mausoleum.
The Zambian government maintains that, as a former head of state, Lungu should receive a state funeral and be buried alongside his predecessors at Embassy Park.
On Thursday, the BBC reported that Zambian authorities had already moved ahead with repatriation and taken possession of the body against the family’s wishes.
Yesterday, the BBC reported that the Zambian government had taken possession of the body against the family’s wishes. It quoted Attorney-General Mulilo Kabesha, who said although the family was appealing, the transfer followed their “inability to proceed with their case” at the appeals court.
Kabesha’s remarks suggest that Zambia views the South African litigation as having stalled, and that it believes it is entitled to act on the earlier authorisation for repatriation. That reading is, however, at odds with the family’s position and with the urgent order granted on Wednesday night by Judge Francis-Subbiah.
The apparent removal of Lungu’s remains from Two Mountains before the latest order could be complied with, and before any final ruling on the appeal, raises serious questions about coordination between the South African and Zambian authorities – and about SAPS’s role.
The urgent court directive explicitly named SAPS, the national commissioner and the minister of police as respondents, alongside the Zambian government, instructing them to ensure the body was returned to a mortuary designated by the family. Yet by Thursday, Mashele said his team’s attempts to trace the remains through official channels had drawn a blank.
The SAPS had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to print.
That silence has fuelled speculation about whether the body has already been transported out of South Africa, or whether it is being held at a state facility that has not been disclosed to the family’s lawyers. Either scenario could trigger further legal action, with the potential for a diplomatic spat between Pretoria and Lusaka.
The case highlights the complex intersection of domestic law, international relations and family rights in matters involving former heads of state who die outside their home countries. In this instance, South African courts have been asked to balance a foreign government’s claim to honour a former president with a state funeral against the rights of his next of kin to decide how and where he should be buried.
For Lungu’s relatives, the immediate priority is more basic: to establish where his body is and to regain control over the funeral arrangements they believe he would have wanted. For the Zambian government, the stakes are political and symbolic – ensuring that a former president is interred at Embassy Park, reinforcing a national narrative of continuity and respect for the office.
Between those positions, South African authorities now find themselves under judicial instruction to account for a body that, for the moment, appears to have vanished from the mortuary where it was supposed to remain.
With the urgent order in place and the family’s appeal still pending, the next steps from SAPS, the Department of Justice and the Zambian state will determine whether this already fraught dispute can be resolved within the framework of the law – or whether it spirals further into a diplomatic and constitutional showdown over a missing former president.
