HARARE (Reuters) - A chief in Zimbabwe has ordered the exhumation and reburial of Robert Mugabe’s remains at the national heroes’ shrine in Harare after accusing the late leader’s wife of breaking local custom by interring him at his rural home in 2019.
Mugabe, who was ousted in a coup that brought Emmerson Mnangagwa to power in November 2017, was buried at his village of Kutama after weeks of dispute with Mnangagwa’s government over his final resting place.
A traditional chief in Zvimba district, which includes Kutama, said he had received a complaint from a Mugabe clan member over the manner of his burial.
After presiding over a village court last Thursday, Chief Zvimba on Monday issued a ruling that found Grace Mugabe guilty of breaking traditional norms by burying her husband in the courtyard of his home.
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The former first lady, who did not attend the hearing, was fined five cows and a goat.
“I give powers to those who are permitted by law to exhume the late Robert Mugabe’s remains from Kutama and rebury them at the National Heroes Acre in Harare,” said a copy of the ruling in the local Shona language.
Leo Mugabe, spokesman for the Mugabe family, immediately rejected the ruling.
“He (chief) has no jurisdiction over Kutama. And even if the correct chief had made that ruling we would have appealed to the court,” Leo Mugabe told Reuters.
Chiefs in Zimbabwe have jurisdiction over their local subjects but it is rare for them to order families to exhume bodies for reburial.
The chief’s order will likely rekindle a row over Mugabe’s final resting place.
Mnangagwa had pushed for Mugabe to be buried at the monument for liberation war heroes, but the family refused, saying Mugabe had expressed fears to close family members before his death that some of the people who ousted him would seek to conduct a traditional ritual with some of his body parts.
the customary law trounces all other laws when it comes to burial as long as the deceased subscribed to traditions, our Hero Mugabe must be burried in the heroes corner.
A Zimbabwean court on Friday confirmed a traditional chief’s ruling that former President Robert Mugabe’s remains must be exhumed for reburial at a national shrine. Mugabe’s children had challenged Chief Zvimba’s controversial ruling, arguing he acted outside his jurisdiction when he found former First Lady Grace Mugabe guilty of violating tradition by burying the strongman at his homestead.
His family claimed his final wish was for President Emmerson Mnangagwa not to preside over his funeral.
The former First Lady was ordered to facilitate the exhumation of the long-serving ruler’s remains for reburial at a national shrine for luminaries of the country’s 1970s liberation war. She was fined five cows and two goats.
Ms Mugabe, who is said to be indisposed and seeking treatment in Singapore, was tried in absentia.
[SIZE=6]Appeal dismissed[/SIZE]
The traditional leader said he was “giving powers to those who are permitted by law to exhume Mugabe’s remains from Kutama and rebury them at the National Heroes Acre in Harare".
But Mugabe’s three children, Bona, Bellarmine Chatunga and Tinotenda Robert, filed an appeal with a local magistrate’s court, arguing that “Chief Zvimba erred at law by making an order that overturns a burial order in respect of the burial of the late Robert Mugabe, when the chief had no judicial authority to interpret legal acts from superior legislation to his jurisdiction”.
The siblings said the chief made a mistake by “making an order that affects property rights of a party that is not part of the proceedings”.
They accused the chief of making a “false finding of fact, which amounts to an error at law when he found that the late Robert Mugabe was buried inside a house.”
The appeal was dismissed by a magistrate in the former ruler’s hometown of Chinhoyi.
Following Mugabe’s death in Singapore in 2019, a standoff ensued between the government and his family over his final resting place, stretching for nearly three weeks.