“In Singapore, they are preparing the body. The plane that will bring the body will leave Zimbabwe on Monday and we are choosing people that are going. The timing is more like Wednesday when the body will arrive in Zimbabwe,” he said.
The body of former President Robert Mugabe, who died in Singapore on Friday, will arrive home mid-next week, a family spokesperson has said.
But Leo Mugabe, the former President’s nephew, said on Saturday the family was still deliberating on where the veteran leader will be buried.
Mugabe, who has since been declared a national hero, died in the Asian country where he was receiving medical treatment for an undisclosed ailment.
He ruled Zimbabwe from independence in 1980 until his resignation in 2017.
Leo Mugabe told reporters at the former President’s rural home in Zvimba that no decision on his burial place had yet been made.
“The issue to do with burial has not been finalised, what we are doing is tomorrow, we are meeting with the protocol (government
representatives) people in order to get to those issues,” he said.
He added that the chiefs in the area as well as the former President’s widow, Grace will also have a say on the burial place.
“There is need to consult also with the wife (who is) in Singapore so that if there are issues of how he wants to be buried which he probably would have said to his wife, they will be brought to the fore,” Leo Mugabe said.
He said they had been advised that the plane that will carry his body back home will leave Zimbabwe for Singapore on Monday.
“In Singapore, they are preparing the body. The plane that will bring the body will leave Zimbabwe on Monday and we are choosing people that are going. The timing is more like Wednesday when the body will arrive in Zimbabwe,” he said.
While it is customary for national heroes to be buried at the national shrine- the Heroes Acre in Harare – government allows the family of the deceased to choose the burial place.
Before his death, reports had indicated that the former President had expressed wishes not to be buried at the national shrine, where his first wife, Sally Mugabe and sister, Sabina are interred.
But Leo Mugabe said the family was not aware who generated the reports.
“I do not know where that originated from. It did not originate from the family. But I am not saying he will be buried at the Heroes Acre,” Leo Mugabe said.
He said his uncle, whom he described as a ‘hero of heroes,” died bitter following his resignation in November 2017, after which his health deteriorated.
New Ziana
