The family of late former President Edgar Lungu has confirmed that the government has formally reached out to begin negotiations over the ongoing burial dispute.
In a statement, family spokesperson and lawyer Makebi Zulu said Secretary to the Cabinet Patrick Kangwa has initiated contact with the family to start formal dialogue.
“We wish to acknowledge that Government, through the Secretary to Cabinet Mr. Patrick Kangwa, has approached the family to initiate formal negotiations,” Zulu said. He emphasized the need for trust, noting that deliberate and genuine steps are required to rebuild it when broken. “We pray for sincerity and decency to prevail as the environment for suggested negotiations is being fostered in a hope for subsequent resolution of this matter,” he added.
Earlier, the Constitutional Court of South Africa dismissed the family’s direct application for appeal regarding the repatriation of Lungu’s body to Zambia. The family had sought to bypass the Supreme Court of Appeal to resolve the matter quickly, but the ruling means the appeal must follow the standard process.
Zulu explained, “The import of the order of the Constitutional Court is that the appeal must first lay to the Supreme Court of Appeal before the Constitutional Court could deal with it, in the event that any party desires to.” He confirmed that the appeal remains active under Section 18(1) of the Superior Courts Act, allowing the status quo to remain while the matter is before the courts.
The family’s appeal challenges two key points: first, that the High Court judgment in Pretoria effectively removed all family rights over the burial of their relative; and second, that the court wrongly applied Zambian law to govern the burial of a former head of state, despite no such law existing.
“The essence of the appeal by the family is to assert family rights in relation to the burial of a loved one notwithstanding the position one held in life,” Zulu said. “It is beyond contestation that the judgment of the High Court suggested the family had no rights whatsoever in relation to the burial of the late former President Edgar Chagwa Lungu. This is the position which the family disagrees with.”
Zulu thanked Zambians and other well-wishers for their support during what he described as a difficult period.
The initiation of formal negotiations signals a potential path toward resolving the dispute, as both the government and the Lungu family seek a framework for a mutually acceptable settlement.