Former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe is expected to be buried on
Sunday next week after his body is returned from Singapore where he
died two days ago at age 95, a presidential spokesperson said.
Spokesperson George Charamba told AFP that the family had yet to
decide on where Mugabe would be buried.
Mugabe’s nephew said on Sunday that a delegation was expected to leave
Zimbabwe on Monday to collect the hero-turned-despot’s body from
Singapore.
Mugabe’s health took a hit after he was ousted by the military in
November 2017, ending his increasingly tyrannical rule. He had been
travelling to Singapore for treatment since April.
“I can’t give an authoritative day, all I know is people are leaving
on Monday to go and pick up the body,” Leo Mugabe told AFP.
“So assuming they get there on Tuesday and the body is ready,
logically you would think they should land here on Wednesday,” he
said, adding that a list of accompanying family members was being
finalised.
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has officially declare his
predecessor Robert Mugabe a national hero
Once praised as a liberator who rid Zimbabwe of white minority rule,
Mugabe soon turned to repression and fear to govern.
He is widely remembered for crushing political dissent and ruining the
economy, prompting mixed reactions to his passing.
At Sacred Heart Cathedral, Mugabe’s parish in the capital Harare, the
priest encouraged congregants to pray for their founding leader.
“I know some of us may have different feelings about it, but it’s our
duty to pray for one another,” Father Justin Jagaja told AFP.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared a period of “national mourning”
on Friday, without providing further detail.
The government is expected to announce when Mugabe’s body will be
returned to Zimbabwe and provide details of the funeral in coming
days.
Mugabe’s family and Mnangagwa appear to disagree on whether the former
president will be buried in his rural homestead Zvimba in a ceremony
involving local chiefs, or at the National Heroes Acre – a hilltop
shrine in Harare commemorating guerillas killed during the liberation
struggle.
