16/08/2025
This is not a matter of emotion
it is a matter of law, sovereignty, and dignity.
South Africa is a sovereign nation, not a political sanctuary for the remains of foreign heads of state.
The burial of former Zambian President Edgar Lungu on South African soil would violate the very principles of diplomatic protocol that have guided our continent for decades.
African Union practice is clear
a head of state belongs, in life and in death, to the soil of their homeland, unless their country is in conflict, politically unstable, or incapable of hosting such an event.
Zambia is none of these.
To grant this request would set a dangerous precedent.
Tomorrow it will be another president, then a minister, then a political figure whose burial becomes a diplomatic controversy on our land.
Do we wish to turn South Africa into Africa’s political cemetery?
The late President Lungu’s history, his victories, and his failures are written in Zambia’s political story
not South Africa’s.
His burial must remain part of Zambia’s national record, where his people can honour, question, or debate his legacy.
That is their right.
Security and financial implications cannot be ignored.
A burial of this scale would demand massive state resources
security deployments, diplomatic hosting, and traffic management
all at a cost to South African taxpayers for a figure who held no official position in our Republic.
At a time when South Africa faces economic strain, this is an unjustifiable diversion of resources.
Lastly, this is about dignity
the dignity of the deceased and the dignity of nations.
President Lungu’s final rest should be under the Zambian sun, in the embrace of the soil that shaped him, among the ancestors and the people he led.
To bury him here is to sever that connection, to displace a nation’s history, and to disrespect both Zambian heritage and South African sovereignty.
For these reasons, the court must find that the burial of former Presid
