MagRush writer | September 13, 2019
The plot thickness. Sunday burial is off, for now. According to the family spokesperson Leo Mugabe, the late Robert Gabriel Mugabe will be buried only in 30 days period henceforth. The Ex-Zimbabwe President remains as controversial lying in his casket as he was when alive in his latter days. The erratic family is not holding back on hoodwinking government while keeping the world on tenterhooks. They want his body to be preserved for the coming 30 days while his mausoleum is being erected. From Sunday – the day the government envisaged to conduct the burial ceremony in full gaze of global guests – Robert Mugabe’s body will be off for an everlasting parade to his rural home in Kutama, Mvimba, to be massaged back to “life” by the sickly eyes of peasants (of Mvimba) living in deadly penury.
In a cat and mouse game there is often a bounty for the taking at play. At first, the Mugabe family allegedly cited lack of consultation around the funeral arrangements planned by the Zimbabwe government. Then they retreated back to their opulent “Blue Roof” mansion in the capital city Harare.
After much horsetrading at the eleventh hour, the government seemed to have prevailed over the final funeral details of the former statesman relating to the resting place and date. Hardly a day after sealing trade-offs, here we go again: the world is none the wiser as to when will the actual burial take place. A logistical nightmare for the Zimbabwean government. A public relations disaster for President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Are these delays deliberate?
Former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will be laid to rest at the government sanctuary, National Heroes Acre, specifically reserved for the country’s liberation victors.
Mugabe family initially pronounced a private burial at his birthplace. Mugabe died a bitter man. That much is apparent. Resentment took root in the run up to and after his [Robert Mugabe’s] removal from the higher political office in the land through a quasi-coup d’etat in 2017.
Even in his death, he is still giving Mnangagwa government sleepless nights. The Mugabes are making sure of all that. Everybody is kept guessing.
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 earlier on Friday. The burial has since been deferred indefinitely.
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 the Zimbabwean struggle for independence against British rule. On the other hand, for some within the country and external observers alike, he remains a tarnished tyranny.