MagRush writer  | September 13, 2019 

Former Zimbabwe President Robert Gabriel Mugabe will be laid to rest at the national government shrine particularly reserved for country’s liberation heroes against British rule.

In a last ditch attempt to sway the Mugabes, President Emmerson Mnangagwa prevailed over the burial of his predecessor at National Heroes Acre in Harare. The Mugabe family dug in its heels, insisting on a private burial at his rural home in Kutama, Mvimba. A better row ensued after Mugabe was deposed from his presidency by his party (Zanu-PF) under the barrel of a military gun in 2017.

The body of the deceased Mugabe is currently lying in state for public viewing at the National Stadium in Harare after the government declared three days of national mourning from Thursday to Saturday.

“I can confirm that he will be buried at the National Heroes Acre on Sunday,” Al Jazeera quoted a family spokesman Leo Mugabe on Friday. A dramatic sudden turnaround from the initial private funeral for family-and-friends brazen stance against government.

Mugabe died last week in Singapore at Gleneagles Hospital at the age of 95 after 37 years in power (from 1980 to 2017). To many, Robert Mugabe is the icon of Zimbabwe struggle for independence; however, for some within the country and external observers, he remains a tainted former president.