Africa-Press – Zambia. 1. When Govt sued the ECL family and obtained an Interim Injunction to stop the burial that was scheduled for 26th June 2025, l took time to study the arguments that Govt was advancing, as well as the counter arguments that ECL’s family was advancing.
2. It soon became apparent to me that ECL’s family clearly had an upper hand, for the simple reason that South African law gave the next of kin the right to determine where and how a dead person should be interred. In this particular case, the wish of ECL’s family was to bury in South Africa. That is all that mattered.
3. However, among all the frivolous arguments that Govt advanced in court, there was one, which if they could prove, might have the potential to supersede South Africa’s that gives the next of kin the right to determine how and where a dead person should be interred. That argument was public interest.
4. However, it is very difficult to definitively prove public interest in court, without your argument being successfully rebutted. You literally have to undertake a statistically sound survey where it is determined that the majority of Zambians want ECL to be buried in Zambia, and that it is therefore in the public interest that he must be buried in Zambia.
5. Of course Govt tried to demonstrate public interest by, according to a recorded conversation between two Honorables, engaging proxies to undertake protests in front of the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria. But these efforts fell far short of the requisite solid argument for public interest, that would sway the court to determine in favor of Govt.
6. Until the matter came up for a hearing on 4th August 2025. Both parties made their submissions and it appeared like ECL’s family might carry the day, until the Judge asked the ECL family lawyer, a rather rhetorical question.The judge said; do you think it is in the public interest that ECL should be buried in Zambia?
7. The ECL family lawyer answered in the affirmative, but quickly qualified his answer by saying “… it is however the desire of the family that he should be buried here in South Africa..”. At that moment, l sunk in my seat with helplessness. The moment the lawyer agreed that it was in the public interest that ECL should be buried in Zambia, l knew that we had lost the case. It did not matter the qualification that he made thereafter by saying it is however the desire of ECL’s family that he should be buried in South Africa. Because on any day of the week, public interest takes precedence over family interest.
8. Suffice to mention that Govt had been struggling and failing to prove public interest, until the family lawyer gave it to them on a silver platter, through an admission. Infact the judge even quiped that “.. you seem to be agreeing with the submissions of the Applicant..”. The question that shall remain lingering on the back of my mind is whether that was due to plain incompetence or he was compromised?
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