The late former President Robert Mugabe’s family says it will not entertain calls to rebury the country’s former strongman.
This comes after a Zvimba traditional leader summoned former First Lady Grace Mugabe to appear before his traditional court on a charge of “improper” burial.
But the Mugabe family spokesperson and nephew to the late feared former ruler, Leo Mugabe, said it was improper to summon Grace since the burial of his uncle was a done and dusted issue. He said:
No one will force us to change even if they come up with many court cases. They can go to hell.
Our position as a family is that we will not entertain this issue. We buried Mugabe and that’s all.
This person who is complaining is not part of the family and we don’t know why he is doing that.
We don’t know why the chief is summoning Grace on his charge sheet. Grace is not a Mugabe, she is an in-law in the family and the decision to bury him was a Mugabe family decision.
Leo vowed that no one would attend the court session and even if the complaint wins the case, no one has the power to force the family to exhume Mugabe for reburial. He said:
In any case, what will happen even if the complainant wins the case? It is an exercise in futility because as far as we are concerned, we are done and nobody can force us and we cannot say he was buried in a house when we all know he was buried in a courtyard.
Had we gone to the National Heroes Acre he was going to be buried in a proper room they call a mausoleum and was the chief going to summon President (Emmerson) Mnangagwa over that?
Chief Zvimba summoned Grace to appear before his court later this month after a ZANU PF official identified as Tinos Manongovere approached the court demanding that she be tried for the “irregular” burial of Mugabe.
Chief Zvimba warned that a ruling will be made even if Grace snubs the summons.
Mugabe, who was deposed by the military in a coup in November 2017, died in September 2019 at a hospital in Singapore. He died a bitter man, according to his nephew Walter Chidhakwa.