Edgar Lungu: Former Zambian president who left chequered legacy dies aged 68
Edgar Lungu, the former president of Zambia, has died at the age of 68. His death comes six months after a court ruling prevented him from running for office again, thwarting his attempted return to politics.
Lungu, who served as the sixth president of the Southern African nation from 2015 to 2021, passed away on Thursday morning at a medical centre in Pretoria, South Africa. He had been receiving specialised treatment in the capital, according to a statement released on social media by his political party, the Patriotic Front.
During his time in office, Lungu was lauded for initiating a large-scale road construction programme. However, his administration also faced criticism for Zambia's deteriorating financial situation, which led to the country defaulting on its international debt in 2020 and contributed to his election loss to current President Hakainde Hichilema.
The party also posted a video on social media of Lungu's daughter Tasila Lungu, a member of Zambia's parliament, announcing his death.
"My father... had been under medical supervision in recent weeks. This condition was managed with dignity and privacy," she said.
Lungu suffered from a rare disorder that caused a narrowing of the food pipe, for which he had been treated in South Africa before. Shortly after he took office in 2015 he fell ill and underwent a procedure in South Africa which the presidency said at the time was not available in Zambia.
Chequered legacy
Lungu was born on November 11, 1956, in the city of Ndola, in the Zambian copperbelt. A lawyer by training, he served as justice and defence minister under former president Michael Sata before taking over the presidency when Sata died in 2015.
After taking office Lungu quickly embarked on legislative reforms which were seen as progressive, including amending the constitution to reduce the power of the president.
He won a presidential election in 2016 that gave him a five-year term in office. But just before it ended he tried and failed to reverse the constitutional changes he had made.
"The legacy of Edgar Lungu is a chequered legacy," said political analyst Lee Habasonda at the University of Zambia.
"He will be remembered for tolerating thuggery by his supporters although he also represented a brand of politicians who interacted across class."
Under Lungu's tenure and especially towards the end of his presidency his supporters became unruly, and his failure to rein them in was widely viewed as an endorsement of their actions.
Habasonda said he was someone who "allowed the poorest of Zambians to get close to the corridors of power."
Lungu had an acrimonious relationship with key Western donors like the United States, whose ambassador he asked to be withdrawn in 2020. Relations with the International Monetary Fund also became strained during his tenure, prompting the lender to withdraw its resident representative.
Amid economic turmoil, Zambia became one of the first countries to default on its international debt after COVID-19 devastated the world's economies in the early 2020s.
After his 2021 election defeat Lungu went into retirement, then made a political comeback in 2023, eventually being accepted as the leader and presidential candidate for the alliance including the Patriotic Front.
But in December last year, Zambia's constitutional court ruled that he was ineligible to run for another term in office.
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Daily Mail
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The billionaire also joined Trump on the campaign trail when he returned to the site of the Butler shooting in early October, a month before Election Day. Trump said in the Oval that he likely still would have won Pennsylvania without Musk's help and because Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris didn't choose the state's governor, Josh Shapiro, to be her running mate. Even with Shapiro on the ticket, Trump claimed, 'I would have won Pennsylvania, I would have won by a lot.' Musk said that was laughable. 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,' Musk claimed. 'Such ingratitude,' the billionaire added. The 53-year-old Musk also asserted he had more staying power than the 78-year-old president. 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I was always surprised that Biden didn't do it!' Trump wrote. Musk then taunted Trump to act. 'This just gets better and better,' he wrote. 'Go ahead, make my day …' In a follow-up post, Musk said he would 'begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately.' The Dragon is how NASA astronauts currently travel to the International Space Station - and how supplies make it there. As the fight continued, Tesla shares plummeted. Anti-semitic rapper Kanye West even got involved. 'Broooos please noooooo. We love you both so much,' West wrote. And Musk threw the Epstein bomb. '@RealDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,' Musk wrote. 'Have a nice day, DJT!' Epstein is a serial child sex offender who died in prison in 2019. Trump pledged to release the files related to Epstein, with Attorney General Pam Bondi releasing some pages in February, but most of that information was already in the public domain. 'Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out,' Musk added. Trump didn't directly respond to Musk's Epstein charge, instead posting what amounted to a shrug on Truth Social, while also continuing to back the 'big, beautiful bill.' 'I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,' Trump wrote. 'This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.' Later he ignored shouted questions from reporters on Musk's Epstein charge as he hosted the National Fraternal Order of Police executive board in the State Dining Room. Asked for comment, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Mail in a statement: 'This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted.' 'The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again,' Leavitt added. Trump didn't directly respond to Musk's Epstein charge, instead posting what amounted to a shrug on Truth Social, while also continuing to back the 'big, beautiful bill.' 'I don't mind Elon turning against me, but he should have done so months ago,' Trump wrote. 'This is one of the Greatest Bills ever presented to Congress.' Later he ignored shouted questions from reporters on Musk's Epstein charge as he hosted the National Fraternal Order of Police executive board in the State Dining Room. A source familiar pointed out to the Daily Mail that 'everyone knows President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Palm Beach Golf Club.' 'The Administration itself released Epstein files with the President's name included. This is not a new surprise Elon is uncovering. Everyone already knew this,' the source continued. The source also mused, 'If Elon truly thought the President was more deeply involved with Epstein, why did he hangout with him for 6 months and say he "loves him as much as a straight man can love a straight man?"' It was less than a week ago that Trump gave Musk a golden key and a DOGE send-off from the Oval Office.
