Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe will be buried next week on Sunday, September 15, in an undisclosed location, the presidency announced on Sunday. The 95-year-old Mugabe died in Singapore on Friday after a long illness.
“His remains are expected on Wednesday afternoon (in Zimbabwe),” President George Charamba told AFP. The official funeral is scheduled for Saturday, his funeral will take place on Sunday (next).”
He added the place of his family would finalize the place of the funeral. The discussions are currently going on between the former president’s family and the government about how to organize the funeral. A government memo sent to diplomatic missions suggested that Mugabe’s funeral will be held in Harare’s National Sports Stadium on Saturday, with a burial ceremony on Sunday. The memo, however, did not disclose where the burial would be held.
According to Reuters, three of Mugabe’s relatives have informed the publication that the deceased former president’s family is against the government’s plan to bury him at the National Heroes Acre monument and instead wants him to be buried in his home village.
“The family has made a decision that Mudhara will be buried at Kutama – that is the position – but the government is still engaging the family to try to have him buried at (National) Heroes Acre,” the relative in Singapore told Reuters.
Mugabe had ruled Zimbabwe for almost four decades from independence in 1980 until he was removed by his own army in a November 2017 coup.
Presidential spokesman George Charamba told state media that Mugabe’s body is expected to arrive in Harare on Wednesday. On Friday, the Head of State decreed official mourning and awarded him a “national hero” status, which offers him a place in the “Field of the Nation’s Heroes”, on the edge of the capital, Harare.
