In a moment that has cast a long shadow over the dignity of Southern Africa, the High Court in Pretoria has ordered the family of Zambia’s late former President Edgar Chagwa Lungu to surrender his body for repatriation and burial in Lusaka — bringing to a close a weeks-long legal and political standoff that many, including Malawi’s Nyasa Times, have described as nothing short of an embarrassment.
Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba ruled Friday that the Zambian government has every legal right to proceed with the state funeral and interment of its late head of state at Embassy Park, the resting place of Zambia’s presidents.
“The applicant is entitled to repatriate the body of the late president, Edgar Lungu, for a state funeral,” ruled Ledwaba, in a decision that punctuates what observers say should have never escalated beyond a family discussion.
But escalate it did — to the level of international shame. The Lungu family’s decision to fight the Zambian government in a foreign court over funeral arrangements has drawn the ire of many across the region, with Nyasa Times lambasting the debacle as a stain on the face of SADC diplomacy and African respect for the dead.
Where tradition calls for quiet dignity, the Lungu family instead stirred the pot of pettiness. Their move to block state funeral plans — apparently to fulfill a supposed dying wish that current Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema not “go anywhere near” Lungu’s remains — has been viewed by analysts as a last gasp of political spite masquerading as filial loyalty.
As the saying goes, “when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.” But in this case, it is not the political class — but the people of Southern Africa — who have been left to watch in disbelief as what should have been a solemn period of national mourning turned into a courtroom circus.
Instead of a quiet and dignified handover, the Lungu family clutched to the body like a political trophy, even appealing court decisions as though their kin’s corpse were a campaign manifesto. If ever there was a textbook case of turning grief into grandstanding, this is it.
For many Zambians — and for mourners across the continent — the ruling comes as a long-overdue dose of judicial clarity. “You do not cry more than the bereaved,” one elder was overheard saying in Lusaka. “But this family went as far as turning tears into tantrums.”
While the court’s judgment may bring legal closure, the diplomatic damage has already been done. A funeral meant to unify a nation ended up dividing it — and dragging South Africa into a matter that could have, and should have, been settled with humility.
Lungu, a former president who once led his nation through some of its most politically charged years, will now finally rest — not in exile, but in the land he once governed. Whether his final moments will be remembered for peace or political drama remains to be seen.
But for now, Southern Africa breathes a sigh of relief, hoping that the lessons of dignity, decorum, and diplomacy have not been buried with the man himself.
