The late former President Robert Mugabe’s three children, Bona Mutsahuni-Mugabe, Tinotenda Robert Jnr Mugabe, and Bellarmine Chatunga, on Wednesday, failed to appear in court in a case where they are seeking to stop the exhumation of their father’s remains, reported NewsDay.
Bona (executrix of the estate of late Robert Mugabe), Robert Jnr, and Chatunga were called thrice each without response.
Chinhoyi provincial magistrate Tinashe Ndokera ruled that the three should have been in court to support documentary evidence provided by the appellant’s lawyer, Pardon Nhokwara.
This prompted their lawyer Takunda Gombiro to make an application arguing that since it is a civil case, documentary evidence was sufficient.
Nhokwara had argued that documentary evidence alone was not sufficient as he wanted the family to clarify some of the issues.
Ndokera postponed the case to 7 March 2023 for a hearing.
If Mugabe’s children fail to appear in court on 7 March a default judgment will be entered.
Two of the chiefs who wanted Mugabe’s remains to be exhumed from his Zvimba homestead and reburied at the National Heroes Acre in Harare have died.
Chief Beperere who argued that the Mugabe family had erred in laying him to rest in the courtyard died in September 2021 while Chief Zvimba, born Johannes Jenami, died in 2022.
The Mugabes are contesting the magistrates’ court’s decision to exhume and rebury Mugabe’s remains.