A legal battle over where former Zambian President Edgar Lungu’s remains will be buried is over, more than a year after his death, as South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in favour of his family and rejected the Zambian government’s claim of custody over his body.

The ruling overturned a lower South African court decision that had ordered the family to hand over Lungu’s remains to the Zambian government for repatriation.

Lungu died in South Africa on June 5, 2025, aged 68. The Zambian government wanted him to be buried at a cemetery designated for the nation’s leaders, but his family preferred burial in South Africa.