Zambia asked a South African court to halt the planned burial of ex-President Edgar Lungu, who died June 5, ratcheting up a feud between the current head of state and the former leader’s family.

The attorney general of Zambia applied for an interim order to halt the Lungu family’s plans to hold a private burial in South Africa. The Zambian government argues that he should have an official funeral at home, state-owned ZNBC television reported.

The hearing in the Pretoria High Court was under way on Wednesday morning.

The legal battle follows weeks of wrangling between the government of the copper-rich nation and Lungu’s family, who’ve failed to agree on how and where he should be buried and whether President Hakainde Hichilema should be involved in the proceedings. Ultimately, the family abandoned an earlier agreement for a state burial in the Zambian capital, Lusaka.

Lungu and Hichilema were bitter political opponents. After Hichilema defeated Lungu in elections in 2021, Zambian prosecutors pursued numerous cases against the former president’s political allies and family members. Esther, Lungu’s wife, had been scheduled to appear in a Lusaka court this week over the alleged theft of motor vehicles. She’s pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Lungu, who was president from 2015 to 2021, previously said state prosecutors were preparing to arrest him after pursuing family members.

Zambia in 2017 dropped treason charges against Hichilema — at the time an opposition leader — after he’d spent about four months in prison. His motorcade had failed to pull off the road to allow then-President Lungu’s to pass, leading to the court case.