Mugabe’s family wins tussle with Zimbabwe govt over burial site
28 September, 2019
Zimbabwe’s longtime ruler Robert Mugabe will be buried in his home district, not at a national shrine, the government said on Thursday, relenting to the family’s wish for a private burial three weeks after his death.
Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years from independence in 1980, was a polarizing figure idolized by some for his role in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle, but hated by others for overseeing a disastrous economic decline and political violence.
He died in a Singapore hospital on Sept. 6 at age 95, bitter over the way he was ousted in an army coup in November 2017 and replaced by his former right-hand man, Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa had initially pushed for Mugabe to be buried at the National Heroes Acre monument — an occasion political analysts and ZANU-PF party sources said Mnangagwa wanted to use to display a public reconciliation with Mugabe’s admirers.
But the information ministry said in a statement on Thursday that the government was cooperating with Mugabe’s family, who wanted him buried in the Zvimba district to the west of the capital.
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