Mugabe to be buried in his village early next week: family

Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe will be buried early next week in his village and not at a national monument for liberation heroes, his family said yesterday. The family of Mugabe, who died in Singapore last week, and Zimbabwe’s government have been at odds over whether he would be buried in his homestead in Kutama, northwest of Harare, or at the National Heroes Acre in the capital.

“His body will lie in state at Kutama on Sunday night.. followed by a private burial -- either Monday or Tuesday -- no National Heroes Acre. That’s the decision of the whole family,” his nephew Leo Mugabe told AFP. Mugabe, whose autocratic rule ended in a military coup in 2017, died last week aged 95.

His body was flown back from Singapore on Wednesday. Zimbabweans have been split over the death of a leader once hailed for ending the former British colony Rhodesia of white-minority rule but who later purged his foes in a brutal crackdown. His tyrannical leadership and economic mismanagement forced millions to escape a country crippled by hyper-inflation and shortages of food, drugs and fuel.