The South African Supreme Court of Appeal has upheld the plea that was made to it by the family of Zambia's late former President Edgar Lungu, overturning the August 25 High Court judgement which initially favoured the Zambian government. 

The 50-page judgement delivered online to the warring parties has granted both burial rites and damages to the bereaved family. 

The five-coram panel of the Supreme Court of Appeal noted that the death of a loved one inevitably evokes grief in the family of the deceased, but the burial ritual intended to bring closure has, instead, pitted family against the state in a hard-fought legal dispute far from the protagonist's home. 

The Supreme Court of Appeal found that the lower court, on the basis of both contract and Zambian protocol and customs, granted the order sought by the Zambian government without considering or making any findings in respect of the benefits act. 

The panel also established, when hearing the defence from the counsel representing the government, that it expressly eschewed any reliance on the benefits act. 

The judges have held that, in respect of the Zambian government's reliance on Zambian customs and practice, it results in no true conflict of laws.