As the ongoing cross-border dispute over the burial of the late former President Edgar Chagwa Lungu, his widow, Esther Lungu, has disclosed that one of his final wishes was that President Hakainde Hichilema neither attend his funeral nor view his body.

The revelations were made in an affidavit filed before the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, South Africa, as the legal battle intensifies between the Lungu family and the Zambian government, which is seeking to repatriate the former Head of State’s remains for a state burial in line with national tradition.

“During the late former President Lungu’s time in South Africa, he was open and consistent in expressing his wish that, upon his death, the current President should be nowhere,” the affidavit reads. “He expressly said Mr. Hichilema must not be allowed to participate in or see his body.”

Esther Lungu further claimed her husband fled Zambia in January 2025 under genuine fear of persecution, not merely for medical treatment. She alleged that President Lungu feared politically motivated neglect in Zambian healthcare institutions and ongoing harassment by the state. He was diagnosed in South Africa with terminal oesophageal cancer, which doctors believed could have been more effectively treated had he been treated ealier.

She argues that her husband died a private citizen, stripped of all former president benefits since 2023, and that the Former Presidents’ Benefits Act—under which the state claims burial authority—no longer applied to him at the time of his death.

“There is no testament, will, or legal basis for the State to interfere with the burial. That responsibility rests with his family, and his wish was to be buried in South Africa,” she stated.

Mrs. Lungu also accused the government of waging a prolonged campaign of political retaliation, referencing the 2017 arrest of President Hichilema during Lungu’s administration as a likely catalyst for what she termed state-orchestrated retribution—including arrests of family members and property seizures.

As evidence, she submitted videos and podcast interviews in which the late president expressed deep mistrust of the Hichilema-led government. In one recorded statement, he reportedly said: “One who torments another in life must not preside over the funeral in death.”

The Zambian government, through Attorney General Mulilo Kabesha, has maintained that President Lungu’s status as a former Head of State legally obligates the nation to honour him with a state funeral and burial, as per constitutional and legislative requirements.

The Attorney General has petitioned the Pretoria High Court to issue an order for the repatriation of the body to Zambia, where government insists a state burial at the Embassy Park Presidential Burial Site is the rightful course.

The former First Lady’s claims have stirred public debate, drawing a reflective response from governance activist Laura Miti, who challenged the moral framing of the late president’s final sentiments.

“My question to Madam Esther is—did President Lungu also speak about the terrible treatment he himself had dished out to HH?” Miti posted on social media.

She went on to question whether forgiveness was ever part of the conversation in the final days of the former president’s life.

“Did she, at all, try to save her husband from dying with anger and half-truths?”

The matter, which has placed Zambia on the global spotlight, is now before the Gauteng High Court, with a ruling on the repatriation request expected on 4 August 2025. In the meantime, both sides remain at a legal and moral impasse, with national unity and tradition hanging in the balance.