Court Orders Exhumation of Robert Mugabe Remains for Reburial
A Zimbabwean court on 10 September has confirmed a traditional chief's ruling that former President Robert Mugabe's remains must be exhumed for reburial at a national shrine. Mugabe's children had challenged Chief Zvimba's controversial ruling, arguing he acted outside his jurisdiction when he found former First Lady Grace Mugabe guilty of violating tradition by burying Mugabe at his homestead.
The former First Lady was ordered to facilitate the exhumation of Mugabe's remains for reburial at a national shrine for luminaries of the country's 1970s liberation war. She was fined five cows and two goats. Mugabe died in September 2019 at age 95 and was buried at Kutama, his rural home despite vigorous attempts by President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration to have him interred at the National Heroes Acres in Harare where a lot of other nationalists are buried. Following his death in Singapore in 2019, a standoff ensued between the government and his family over his final resting place, stretching for nearly three weeks.
InFocus
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The late former president Robert Mugabe's children have challenged, in court, a recent ruling by Chief Zvimba ordering his exhumation and reburial at the National Heroes Acre in Harare. Earlier, former First Lady Grace Mugabe was fined five cattle and two goats for violating traditional customs and rites following the burial of her husband at the family's rural home. Grace Mugabe was summoned to appear before Chief Zvimba's traditional court in Zvimba but snubbed the hearing.
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There appears to be some division in the ruling Zanu-PF party with indications that some top party officials want the late former president Robert Mugabe's Blue Roof mansion to be converted into a museum while others are pushing for the property to be transferred to Mugabe's family. The ruling party's information secretary Obert Mpofu is reported to have said the mansion will be set aside to benefit the party instead of the Mugabes barely a day after Mugabe's burial at his rural home.
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The remains of former president Robert Mugabe have been buried in the courtyard of his rural homestead in Zvimba during a private ceremony. Mugabe's burial place had been a subject of contestation between the family and government, with the former insisting that his wishes were to be buried at his rural home while the latter wanted him buried at Heroes Acre.
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(file photo).
