Regina Gata, a sibling to Zimbabwe’s late founding leader, Robert Mugabe has claimed that Mugabe’s widow thwarted efforts by unnamed individuals to steal her husband’s body parts.
Gata said that the individuals in question wanted to use Mugabe’s body parts for rituals that would lengthen their stay in power. Speaking to the Daily News, Gata said:
She (Grace) stood as a hero and said she would not betray him even on his death bed. She took care of him in life and in death and defended his body so that nobody could defile it.
There are others who wanted to do traditional things on it, but we stood firm and said no.
The allegations were also confirmed by the family’s spokesperson, Leo Mugabe who revealed on Saturday ahead of Mugabe’s burial that the family took the tamper-proof casket because there were some individuals who wanted Mugabe’s body parts for rituals.
He added that Mugabe himself had instructed Grace, before he died, not to leave his body as there were people who would want to use his body.
More: Daily News