Former president Robert Mugabe will be buried in
a private ceremony in his home village early next week, his family have
said.
Mugabe, who died last Friday at the age of 95, has proved
troublesome even in death with his family and his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa
seemingly at loggerheads about the plans for his funeral.
Mnangagwa wants to bury him at the Heroes Acre memorial in
Harare, where a grave is waiting for him and where his first wife Sally is
buried.
However, Mugabe's family say he wanted to be buried in his
home village and did not want Mnangagwa, who helped to depose him in 2017,
presiding over his funeral.
Today the family appears to have won that battle, his
nephew Leo Mugabe saying that the Heroes Acre ceremony was out.
In the meantime, mourners will pay their respects to
Mugabe's coffin at a stadium in Harare today.
Though his rule was marked by violence and economic crisis,
Mugabe remains popular with some Zimbabweans - especially with Mnangagwa
struggling to revitalise the country.
'His body will lie in state at Kutama on Sunday night..,
followed by a private burial - either Monday or Tuesday - no National Heroes
Acre. That's the decision of the whole family,' Leo Mugabe said.
The row is highly political as Mnangagwa is close to the
military generals who ended Mugabe's 37-year rule in late 2017.
They did so partly to stop the presidential ambitions of
Mugabe's second wife, Grace, who had bitterly denounced Mnangagwa before her
husband's downfall.
The family have also said that traditional chiefs in his
homestead in the Zvimba region should decide where he should be buried.
Yesterday Mnangagwa and Grace Mugabe stood next to each
other as the former President's body arrived back in the country from
Singapore, where he died.
There was no show of antagonism during the short ceremony. daily mail
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