Harare - Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe was finally
laid to rest in a simple burial in his rural home town of Kutama on
Saturday.
His coffin, adorned in a Zimbabwean flag and white flower
arrangements spelling the word Dad, was placed in front of a
stage-like structure on which his widow, Grace, and family were
seated for the church service.
"It was his last wish to be buried at his rural home," said Shuvai
Gumbochuma, Grace's sister, at the service.
She added that Mugabe felt betrayed and that is why the family
snubbed the state's elite shrine.
Mugabe's burial place caused tension between the government, which
wanted him to be buried at the National Heroes Acre, a hilltop shrine
in the capital of Harare, and his family who wanted him to be laid to
rest in Kutama.
The cover to the grave of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is interred during a funeral ceremony at his rural home in Zvimba about 100 kilometres north-west of the capital Harare. Picture: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP
The two sides had eventually settled on a mausoleum at Heroes Acre
and a postponement of the funeral until October so that the structure
could be built.
The government was forced to relent on Thursday, however, when the
family took the body back to the home where he was born in 1924.
Onlookers react as they attend the funeral ceremony during the burial of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe at his rural home in Zvimba about 100 kilometres north-west of Harare. Picture: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP
The grave site, constructed by a Chinese firm, is located in a
courtyard between two homes that belong to Mugabe's first wife, the
late Sally, and his widow.
"We have decided to put the grave here because it's secure and we do
not want anyone to tamper with the body," family spokesman Leo Mugabe
told dpa.
The burial, which was strictly by invitation, was attended by just a
few hundred people, amid tight security.
A cockerel roams across the scene during the funeral ceremony near the coffin of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, in his rural home in Zvimba. Picture: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP
Many villagers were turned away and the few who were allowed in were
asked to produce national identification cards.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who helped oust Mugabe after his 37
years in power, did not attend.
Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe was finally laid to rest in a simple burial in his rural home town of Kutama. Video: Kim Kay/African News Agency
In a statement, a spokesman for the ruling Zanu-PF party, Simon Khaya
Moyo, said: "It is unfortunate that the Mugabe family decided to bury
the late founding father at his rural home" because construction on
the mausoleum had commenced.
Grace, wife to former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe attends Mass during a funeral ceremony at his rural home in Zvimba. Picture: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP
Analysts have said that Grace's desire to protect the fortune accrued
by her family during her husband's rule was a factor in the tensions
over the burial.
Mugabe, who died aged 95 in Singapore on September 6, was both
revered for his liberation politics and reviled for his later
dictatorial rule in the southern African country.