Lungu family condemns ‘unlawful’ postmortem, SA probes poisoning claim

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The family of former Zambian President Edgar Chagwa Lungu has condemned what it describes as an unlawful postmortem conducted on his remains in Pretoria, saying Zambian officials and South African police acted in brazen defiance of a High Court order and desecrated the late president’s dignity.

The family said South African police and Zambian officials arrived at Two Mountains Funeral Services in Johannesburg on April 22, where the president’s body was being held, and pressured the morgue to release the remains without any family member present.

The body was transported to Tshwane Forensic Pathology Service in Pretoria, arriving at 6:30PM. There, the family says, a Sgt. Ngwenya and an unnamed Zambian diplomat opened a postmortem docket, with Ngwenya recording the former president as having died from “suspected poisoning” on the basis of a report by a “family member” – a claim the family categorically denies.

It says no such report exists and that the docket contained no doctor’s report on the cause of death.