Who Was Edgar Lungu? Zambia’s Former President Dies at 68

On Thursday, June 5, 2025, Edgar Chagwa Lungu, the former president of Zambia and a man whose political life had swung between triumph and turmoil, died at the age of 68. His final days were spent under specialist care at a medical centre in Pretoria, South Africa, far from the copper-rich heartlands of his birthplace, Ndola, where his long journey began.

The announcement came not from the seat of government, but from his daughter, Tasila Lungu, a parliamentarian, who stood before a camera and spoke softly, with a mix of grief and composure. “My father… had been under medical supervision in recent weeks. This condition was managed with dignity and privacy,” she said. It was a solemn end for a man who, for years, had lived in the eye of Zambia’s political storm.

Lungu’s health had long been a concern. Not long after assuming the presidency in 2015, he collapsed during a public event and was flown to South Africa for treatment. He was diagnosed with a rare condition that caused a narrowing of the esophagus, a disorder that would quietly shadow him throughout his years in power and into retirement.

Born on November 11, 1956, in Ndola, Zambia’s industrial heart in the Copperbelt region, Lungu trained as a lawyer and served as justice and later defence minister under President Michael Sata. His rise to the top was swift and unexpected. When Sata died in office in 2014, Lungu was chosen to lead the Patriotic Front and narrowly won the presidency in a contentious 2015 by-election. He was confirmed in a full term after winning the 2016 general election.

During his six years in power, Lungu left behind a complicated legacy. His administration embarked on an ambitious infrastructure push; new highways cut through Zambia’s rural and urban expanses. But the spending spree came at a steep cost. The nation’s debt ballooned, and by 2020, Zambia became the first African country to default on its sovereign debt during the COVID-19 pandemic era. That economic unraveling helped seal his fate in the 2021 elections, which he lost to long-time opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema.

In politics, Lungu could be both pragmatic and contradictory. Early in his presidency, he championed reforms that trimmed executive powers, a move welcomed by civil society. Yet near the end of his term, he sought to reverse those very reforms in a failed bid to extend his hold on power. His supporters, once lauded for their grassroots energy, increasingly turned unruly. Critics accused him of enabling political violence by failing to restrain loyalist groups. “He will be remembered for tolerating thuggery by his supporters,” said Lee Habasonda, a political analyst at the University of Zambia, “although he also represented a brand of politicians who interacted across class… he allowed the poorest of Zambians to get close to the corridors of power.”

Lungu’s relationship with the West deteriorated in his later years in office. In 2020, he asked the U.S. ambassador to leave Zambia amid growing diplomatic tensions. His rapport with the International Monetary Fund frayed as well, with the IMF pulling out its representative over governance and fiscal concerns.

After conceding defeat in 2021, Lungu retreated from the political scene, until 2023, when he staged a comeback and reclaimed leadership of the Patriotic Front. The party, desperate for resurgence, named him its presidential candidate for the 2026 elections. But in December 2024, Zambia’s Constitutional Court ruled him ineligible to run again, citing term limits.

In the end, it was neither political defeat nor public scandal that silenced Edgar Lungu, but a persistent, rare illness that had stalked him quietly for years. His death closed the chapter on one of Zambia’s most debated presidencies, a tenure marked by grand ambitions, economic missteps, and a leader whose strengths and flaws were always on full display.