Latest news with #LunguFamily
Zawya
4 days ago
- Politics
- Zawya
President Ramaphosa mourns passing of former President Edgar Lungu of the Republic of Zambia
President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed his sadness at the passing in South Africa of His Excellency Former President Edgar Chagwa Lungu of the Republic of Zambia. Aged 68, President Lungu passed away on Thursday, 5 June 2025, in a Pretoria hospital where he had been receiving treatment for a number of weeks. On behalf of the government and people of South Africa, President Ramaphosa offers his condolences to President Lungu's family and to the nation and government of the Republic of Zambia led by His Excellency President Hakainde Hichilema. President Ramaphosa said: 'As regional compatriots, South Africans are standing by the people of Zambia in this difficult moment. 'We have had the duty and privilege in recent weeks to care for a leader from our region whom we embraced as a brother and friend. 'We therefore share the grief and loss experienced at this time by the Lungu family, as well as the Zambian nation. May his soul rest in peace.' Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa.
News24
5 days ago
- General
- News24
Edgar Lungu, former Zambian president, dies at 68
Zambia's former president Edgar Lungu, who held power for almost seven years until 2021, died on Thursday in a hospital in South Africa at the age of 68, his party and family announced. Lungu had been receiving specialised medical treatment in a clinic in Pretoria, the Patriotic Front, his political party, said in a statement. 'My father had been under medical supervision in recent weeks,' his daughter Tasila Lungu-Mwansa announced in a video shared on social media. 'His condition was managed with dignity and privacy with support from all well-wishers,' she said, without providing details of the cause of his death. Lungu had suffered from recurring achalasia, a condition caused by the narrowing of the oesophagus, for which he had been treated in South Africa. Lungu, a trained military officer and lawyer, stepped down from the presidency in 2021 when veteran opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema, the current president, won elections by a landslide. He had said he planned to run for president again in the 2026 elections. He came to power in 2015 after the death in office of his predecessor, Michael Sata, and described himself as an 'ordinary Zambian of humble beginnings.'
