Presidential spokesperson George Charamba has revealed that President Emmerson Mnangagwa will not attend the burial of national hero Dumiso Dabengwa set for Saturday (today) in Ntabazinduna.
Charamba said that Mnangagwa made the decision in the spirit of respecting the bereaved family’s request for privacy. Said Charamba:
If a national hero’s family accepts the designation of national hero but opts for a private burial, immediately the State President cannot participate directly except through delegated authority.
The moment the President gets to that, it means we take over and that breaches the privacy and control of the family. So he will be represented at an appropriate level.
In short, the President doesn’t go. This is for the purpose of upholding the privacy and control preferred by the bereaved family but more critically to also protect the National Heroes’ Acre because the moment we allow people to have a bite of the cherry then we are undermining the national shrine.
Dabengwa passed away on Thursday last week in Nairobi, Kenya on his way back home from India where he had gone to receive treatment for a liver condition.
He will be buried this Saturday at his home area in Emanxeleni, Ntabazinduna in Matabeleland North.