A former Zimbabwe President, late Robert Mugabe, is to be exhumed and reburied at the national heroe’s shrine in Harare.
A Zimbabwe chief ordered that the remains of Mugabe should be exhumed and reburied after Mugabe’s wife, Grace, was accused of breaking local custom by burying him at his rural home in Kutama in 2019.
Recall that Grace Mugabe was summoned to appear before chief Zvimba’s court on May 20 for not burying her husband properly. She was also fined 5 beasts and one goat.
Chief Zvimba ruled against Grace in absentia on Monday, May 24.
“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 who rejected the ruling, said;
“He (chief Zvimba) 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.
According to traditional law, chiefs in Zimbabwe have jurisdiction over their local subjects but it is rare for them to order families to exhume bodies for reburial.
