The Zambian government has launched legal action against the family of former President Edgar Lungu seeking to stop his burial in South Africa set for Wednesday.

The government wants the planned burial to be stopped until the dispute on Lungu's final resting place is resolved.

Lungu, who led Zambia from 2015 to 2021, died earlier this month in South Africa where he was receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness.

His family said last week that he will be buried in South Africa in a private ceremony instead of his homeland because of a disagreement between with Zambia's government over his funeral.

Bitter feud

The process to repatriate his body for burial in Zambia has been marred by a bitter feud between his family and the current Zambian government. It included the family's demand that Lungu's political rival and current President Hakainde Hichilema should not attend his funeral.

In the lawsuit filed on Tuesday at a court in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, Zambia’s Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha argued that the burial of the former president is a matter of national interest and must follow state and military protocol, as stipulated in Zambian law.

Lungu's widow and children are listed as defendants.

South Africa’s government said earlier this week that it has a “legal obligation to respect the wishes expressed by the former resident’s immediate family for him to be laid to rest in South Africa”. 

Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola met Zambia’s President Hichilema and said South Africa wanted the matter to be addressed with "dignity, grace, and mutual respect".