A clergyman speaks at the altar during the Requiem Mass for former Zambian president Edgar Lungu at Cathedral of Christ the King Catholic Church in Hillbrow.

• The Gauteng High Court has ordered the Zambian government to return late President Edgar Lungu’s body to a South African mortuary after a family dispute.
• Lungu’s family opposes a state funeral in Zambia, citing neglect during his life, and claims his body was unlawfully handed to the SAPS.
• The family has appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeal, with the court emphasising the need for lawful handling of Lungu’s remains.

The family of late Zambian president Edgar Lungu has been granted an order by the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria instructing the Zambian government to return his body to a South African morgue.

The order comes after the Lungu family filed an urgent application on Wednesday to have his remains returned to Two Mountains Burial Services after the South African Police Service (SAPS) had handed them over to the Zambian government.

On Wednesday, the court granted the Lungu family an order instructing that the SAPS, national commissioner of police, minister of police, and the government of Zambia ensure that the body of Lungu be returned to Two Mountains Burial Services.

The court also interdicted the SAPS, the national commissioner of police, and minister of police from handing over the body of Lungu to the Zambian government.

Further, the court asked the SAPS, the minister and the commissioner, the burial service and the Zambian government to give reasons why they should not be convicted of contempt of court.

READ | SA police seek custody of late Zambian president Lungu’s body amid legal wrangle

The SAPS, national commissioner of police, minister of police, government of Zambia and Two Mountains Burial Services are the first, second, third, fourth and fifth respondents respectively in the Lungu court saga.

Lungu died on 5 June while receiving medical care at a South African facility.

After his death, a dispute arose when the Zambian government filed court papers to halt Lungu’s funeral and burial in South Africa, seeking to repatriate his remains for a state funeral.

While the High Court granted Zambia’s request, Lungu’s family appealed to the Constitutional Court – but the apex court declined their direct appeal.

The family then returned to the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, seeking to appeal its earlier decision and to have the matter referred to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).

READ | Ex-Zambian president Lungu’s family taking burial battle to Supreme Court of Appeal

The family was granted leave to appeal to the SCA.

The Lungu family is opposed to the Zambian government giving him a state funeral, and has argued, in court, that Hakainde Hichilema’s government failed to take care of him while he was alive and should not claim to care for him when he is a corpse.

In his statement on Wednesday, Zambia’s Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha confirmed that the High Court had on 22 April transferred Lungu’s body to the Zambian government after his family failed to proceed with the case at the SCA.

In its 8 August 2025 ruling, the court directed that the body be released to the Zambian government to facilitate preparations for repatriation and burial in Zambia.

Kabashe said:

However, in an affidavit filed by Eddie Neo Mashele of Mashele Attorneys, on behalf of the Lungu family, he stated that the mortuary, contrary to the order of the court, had released the former president’s body to the SAPS.

“It is unknown to the applicants on what basis the mortuary handed over the body to the SAPS, and whether the purpose of handing over the body is to hand it over to the government for repatriation.

“However, the surrender of the body to the SAPS is clearly unlawful as there is no court order authorising the SAPS to take possession of the body,” reads the affidavit.

Mashele further argued that if the body had been handed over to the SAPS for repatriation, that would have still been unlawful according to a court order that directed that Lungu’s body could only be released with his family present and provided that two of his family members accompany the coffin with his body during repatriation.

The affidavit further reads:

Mashele also disputed any notion that the family’s lawyers had failed to proceed with the case at the SCA and that, according to the SCA, the deadline to file papers is 11 May.

“The applicants have a prima facie right to the relief they seek. They are entitled not to have the body of the late president Lungu unlawfully removed from the mortuary and to have it only released lawfully in terms of a court order.

“As the heirs, the spouse and children of the president also have the constitutional right to bury him,” argued Mashele.