PRESIDENT Mnangagwa will not attend liberation struggle
icon Dr Dumiso Dabengwa’s burial today in the spirit of respecting the bereaved
family’s request for privacy.
This was said by Presidential spokesperson Mr George
Charamba in a brief interview soon after President Mnangagwa officially opened
the Zimbabwe Annual Mining Conference in Victoria Falls yesterday.
Mr Charamba said President Mnangagwa will be represented at
the burial set for today at Dr Dabengwa’s home area in Emanxeleni, Ntabazinduna
in Matabeleland North.
“If a national hero’s family accepts the designation of
national hero but opts for private burial, immediately the State President
cannot participate directly except through delegated authority. The moment the
President gets to that, it means we take over and that breaches the privacy and
control of the family. So he will be represented at an appropriate level,” said
Mr Charamba.
He said a similar scenario has been used with other
national heroes who were declared national heroes but their families opted for
private burials.
“In short the President doesn’t go. This is for the purpose
of upholding the privacy and control preferred by the bereaved family but more
critically to also protect the National Heroes’ Acre because the moment we
allow people to have a bite of the cherry then we are undermining the national
shrine,” said Mr Charamba.
President Mnangagwa left Victoria Falls soon after officially
opening the mining conference because of other commitments in Harare.
Last week he mourned the death of Dr Dabengwa saying the
former Zipra intelligence supremo was and will always remain a hero.
Dr Dabengwa died in Nairobi, Kenya last week while en-route
to Zimbabwe from India where he had been taken for medical treatment. The late
national hero who died from a liver related illness, was 79. — @ncubeleon
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