Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe presided over the burial of two women at a shrine for heroes of the country’s 1970s war of independence – the first time a double burial has taken place at the monument.
The Wednesday burial of one of the women, Vivian Mwashita, was the first time a woman not married to a top ruling party politician was buried at the 57-acre cemetery.
Victoria Chitepo, interred at the cemetery with Mwashita, was a South African national married to Herbert Chitepo, the late founding chairman of ZANU, now the ruling ZANU-PF party. Of the more than 100 people buried at the shrine, six were women before Wednesday’s event.
Two opposition members in January approached the country’s highest court challenging Mugabe’s monopoly in determining those buried at the shrine.-AP
