‘A checkered legacy'': Zambia's former president Edgar Lungu dies aged 68
Lungu was the sixth president of the Southern African nation and held office from 2015 to 2021, when he lost an election to long-time opposition leader President Hakainde Hichilema.
He was praised during his tenure for a massive road-building programme, but also ran Zambia's finances deeply into the red. The country defaulted on its international debt in 2020, precipitating his election loss.
Lungu died on Thursday morning at a medical centre in Pretoria, where he had been receiving specialised treatment, his political party, the Patriotic Front, said in a statement on social media.
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. The 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 SA before. Shortly after he took office in 2015 he fell ill and underwent a procedure in SA which the presidency said at the time was not available in Zambia.
Lungu was born on November 11 1956, in Ndola in the Zambian copper belt. 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 shortly before it ended he tried and failed to reverse the constitutional changes he had made.
"The legacy of Edgar Lungu is a checkered," said political analyst Lee Habasonda at the University of Zambia.
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