A Zimbabwean court decided that the body of former president Robert Mugabe should be buried at the heroes’ shrine in the country’s capital, Harare.
The magistrate court at Chinhoyi town upheld a ruling by a traditional chief from Mugabe’s rural home in Zvimba area in May that he should be buried at the shrine where the ruling elites and fighters in Zimbabwe’s 1970s independence war are buried.
The traditional court also fined Mugabe’s widow Grace Mugabe, five cows and two goats for burying the late president in a manner that was deemed inappropriate.
The decision forced Mugabe’s three children to appeal arguing that the chief acted out of his jurisdiction.
The body of the late president who died in 2019 will now be exhumed from his current resting place at a court in their rural home in Zvimba and transferred to the shrine on a day that is yet to be decided.
Some of the Mugabe’s family members have accused President Emmerson Mnangngwa of being behind the decision to exhume Mugabe’s body.
Mugabe is said to have refused to be buried at the shrine over fear that his political opponents might exhume his body for traditional rituals.
The family might however appeal the court’s decision in the High Court.
Mugabe died aged 95 years on September 6, 2019 while he was receiving treatment at a hospital in Singapore.
He was overthrown from power by a military coup in 2017 after serving as president for 37 years.
The former president was praised for broadening access to health and education for the black majority.
However years later, his ruling was marked by violent repression of his political opponents and Zimbabwe’s economic ruin.
Mnangangwa who had deputized Mugabe took his place after the military coup.
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