Mugabe’s family wins tussle with Zimbabwe govt over burial site

28 September, 2019
Mugabe’s family wins tussle with Zimbabwe govt over burial site
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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