By Ebi Kesiena
Grace Mugabe, the widow of Zimbabwe’s former ruler Robert Mugabe, has challenged a court order to exhume her husband’s remains for reburial at a national shrine.
Mugabe was buried in his rural village of Kutama, about 90 kilometres west of the capital Harare, in September 2019 after weeks of wrangling over his final resting place.
His family had opposed the government’s plans to bury him at the National Heroes’ Acre in Harare, where it had started constructing a special mausoleum for him.
But in May, a traditional leader fined Grace Mugabe five cows and two goats for improperly burying Mugabe and ordered his exhumation and reburial in Harare.
Mugabe’s children then appealed the chief’s directive, but a magistrate court last month confirmed the order, saying the ex-president’s children had no legal authority to challenge the exhumation of their father.
This prompted Grace Mugabe to take over the legal battle.
Robert Mugabe died in a Singapore hospital on September 6, 2019, aged 95, almost two years after a military coup ended his autocratic 37-year rule.
The government wanted him to be buried at the National Heroes’ Acre, which is set aside for heroes of the liberation struggle against colonial rule.
But Mugabe’s family said that before his death, he had told them he did not want to be buried at the shrine, which is also a tourist site.
