The Zimbabwean government plans to have a state funeral for long time ruler Robert Mugabe in a sports stadium in Harare next Saturday, with a burial ceremony a day later, it said in memo sent to embassies on Sunday.
Mugabe had dominated Zimbabwean politics for almost four decades from independence in 1980 until his own army in a November 2017 coup removed him. Revered by many as a liberator who freed his people from white minority rule, Mugabe was vilified by others for wrecking one of Africa’s most promising economies and ruthlessly crushing his opponents.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who worked closely with Mugabe for decades before helping to oust him, granted Mugabe the status of national hero within hours of his death. The memo sent by Zimbabwe’s ministry of foreign affairs to embassies in Harare and seen by Reuters said the funeral would be in the national sports stadium but did not specify where the burial would be.
Close relatives and government officials flew out of Zimbabwe on Monday to collect the body of ex-President Robert Mugabe from Singapore where he died last week, his nephew said.
Mugabe, a guerrilla leader who swept to power after Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain and went on to rule for 37 years until he was ousted in 2017, died on Friday, aged 95.
A charter flight left Harare at nine am on Monday and was expected to return home on Wednesday at 3pm, Harare time, Leo Mugabe told afp.
On arrival, the body will be taken straight to his rural village in Zvimba, about 90 kilometers west of the capital Harare, for an overnight wake.
On Thursday and Friday, the body will lie in state at Rufaro stadium in Mbare Township in Harare for the public to pay their final respects, he said.
The 35,000-seater stadium is where Mugabe took his oath of office at a colorful ceremony when colonial Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith handed over the country to Mugabe.
There Mugabe hoisted the new Zimbabwe flag and lit the independence flame on April 18, 1980 – bringing hope for a new era after a long guerrilla war.
The body will be kept at his Harare house known as the blue roof overnight Thursday and Friday.
The official funeral will be on Saturday at the giant 60,000-seater national sports stadium in Harare.
The location of the burial remains unclear, with Mugabe’s family and President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government apparently at odds over whether it would be at his homestead northwest of Harare or at a shrine for liberation heroes in the capital.
His nephew said that in line with native Shona customs, traditional chiefs from Zvimba will have a final say on where the former leader will be buried.
