The impasse between the family of the late Zambian president Edgar Lungu and his successor Hakainde Hichilema has reached a new level.
The Lungu family says he will now be buried in Johannesburg, South Africa.
This is after the two sides failed to reach an agreement over the sixth president’s last rites.
The family said Lungu specifically ordered that Hichilema not attend his funeral. Hichilema insists he has to be there and on Thursday decreed the end of the mourning period.
Lungu family spokesperson and lawyer, Makebi Zulu, said the decision to bury him in South Africa is “in accordance with the family’s wishes for a private ceremony.”
“We would especially like to extend our sincere appreciation to the Government of the Republic of South Africa for their respectful support and for honoring the family’s decision to hold a private funeral and burial here in South Africa,” the spokesperson said.
Lungu and Hichilema were bitter rivals.
Lungu imprisoned Hichilema on charges of treason.
Lungus’s family claimed Hichilema repeatedly denied his predecessor treatment outside Zambia when he sought it. Lungu also claimed Hichilema used the police to harass him.
Political commentator Glen Mpani called it a moral failure.
“South Africa gains a body. Zambia buries its conscience,” he wrote.
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