HARARE: A luxury plane has left Zimbabwe for Singapore carrying government officials and relatives to bring home the body of Robert Mugabe, but it was still not clear where the former leader would be buried, a family spokesman said on Monday.
Mugabe’s family is pushing back against the government’s plan to bury him at the National Heroes Acre monument in Harare and wants him to be interred in his home village, relatives have told Reuters.
Leo Mugabe, the late president’s nephew and family spokesman, said a charter plane left Harare for Singapore just after 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Monday.
Mugabe’s body was expected to arrive in Zimbabwe on Wednesday at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT).
But when pressed on where Mugabe would be buried, Leo Mugabe was non-committal.
“Mugabe was a chief and he will be buried in accordance with tradition. The chiefs have not told us where he will be buried, so it is not clear yet. I also don’t know,” he said.
Where will Mugabe be buried..Zvimba? National Heroes Acre??
Attempts to break the deadlock between the Zimbabwean government and former President Robert Mugabe’s relatives over his burial place are reported to have been unfruitful after a succession of meetings, sources have revealed.
Mugabe died on Friday last week in Singapore at the age of 95.
Former president Robert Mugabe’s place of burial is still a matter of contention amid reports that his family are pushing back against the government’s plan to preside over his funeral and to bury him at the National Heroes Acre in Harare.
They want him to be laid to rest in his rural Zvimba home.
The NewsDay reports that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government was pressuring the Mugabe family to accept an offer to have the late leader buried at the National Heroes Acre.
“After several meetings, the family has told government that the final decision lay with the relatives who are in Singapore and will accompany Mugabe’s body back home,” a family source revealed.
In a press statement yesterday, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa was quizzed on where Mugabe would be buried but failed to answer sufficiently.
”We will be giving you more updates. There are still some consultations going on, but certainly, we will coming with more updates.”
