Wed 11 September 2019:
The body of Zimbabwe’s longtime ruler Robert Mugabe arrived Wednesday in the capital, Harare, where it was met by the country’s president and a full military delegation.
Widow Grace Mugabe, in a black dress and veil, sat next to President Emmerson Mnangagwa as Mugabe’s casket, draped with a Zimbabwe flag, was wheeled by top military generals to the podium.
The former’ leader’s body will be displayed at historic locations for several days before burial at a site that is still unannounced, indicating friction between the ex-leader’s family and the government.
Mugabe, who died at 95 in a hospital in Singapore on Friday, was a guerrilla leader who led the fight to end white-minority rule in what was then Rhodesia, and ruled Zimbabwe from its independence in 1980 until he was deposed in 2017.
Mnangagwa, who was Mugabe’s closest ally and vice president before ousting him with the military, addressed the crowd of more than 1,000 at the airport, praising Mugabe as “our revolutionary commander … an icon of pan-Africanism” and “the man who created our nation.”
Earlier, about 500 mourners gathered in Zvimba, Mugabe’s birthplace some 85 kilometers (55 miles) northwest of Harare. The former leader’s body will be taken there on Thursday, as well as to a stadium in the capital’s poor Mbare neighborhood for public viewing before it is moved Saturday to the National Sports Stadium, where African heads of state, dignitaries and the public will attend a service.
Where and when the former strongman will be buried has not been announced, sparking speculation of a disagreement between the government and Mugabe’s wife and other family members. The government had earlier stated that Mugabe would be buried at the Heroes’ Acre state monument, a burial place reserved for top officials of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party who contributed to ending white colonial rule. But some family members said he should be buried at his birthplace, according to Zimbabwean traditions.
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