{"id":14269,"date":"2019-09-30T19:28:15","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T17:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/zimbabwe\/?p=14269"},"modified":"2019-09-30T19:28:15","modified_gmt":"2019-09-30T17:28:15","slug":"mugabe-buried-amid-bizarre-revelations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mugabe-buried-amid-bizarre-revelations","title":{"rendered":"Mugabe buried amid bizarre revelations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The body of former president Robert Mugabe was buried yesterday at his rural home in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Zvimba_District\">Zvimba<\/a> in a low-key event.<\/p>\n<p>Mugabe\u2019s family gathered at Kutama village where they witnessed his burial under tight security.<\/p>\n<p>The late president\u2019s relatives claimed there were people that wanted to \u201cdefile\u201d the 95-year-old\u2019s body for ritual purposes.<\/p>\n<p>Mugabe\u2019s family decided to bury him in Kutama after initially agreeing that his remains be interred at the Heroes Acre in Harare.<\/p>\n<p>A mausoleum was already being constructed at the national shrine.<\/p>\n<p>At the burial site in Kutama, which is in his homestead\u2019s courtyard, the family tightened security and a top engineering firm was hired to secure the grave. Angle iron screens and toughened locks were installed to seal the entire house which was built by Mugabe\u2019s first wife, Sally.<\/p>\n<p>Initially journalists and other mourners were prevented from accessing the burial site. They were only given access during the burial late in the afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Insiders said the grave was cast with thick concrete, lined with stainless steel plates and reinforced with steel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe high security is premised on the grounds that we fear there are people who want to steal his body for ritual purposes and we are just basically taking precautions,\u201d a member of the Mugabe family said.<\/p>\n<p>Mugabe\u2019s sister Regina Gata told mourners that Grace had foiled plans by people who wanted to use her brother\u2019s body for rituals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe stood as a hero and said she would not betray him even on his death bed,\u201d Gata said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe took care of him in life and death and defended his body so that nobody could defile it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are others who wanted to do traditional things on it, but we stood firm and said no.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said the decision to bury Mugabe in Kutama was not taken by Grace, but the family wanted to honour his wish not to be buried at the Heroes Acre.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey simply respected the wishes of a dead person, this is not their doing and I am here to vindicate them,\u201d Gata said.<\/p>\n<p>Grace\u2019s sister Junior Shuvai Gumbochuma said Mugabe told his relatives that he did not want to be buried at the Heroes Acre because he had been insulted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI spoke to him in person and asked him why he did not want to be buried at the national shrine and his response was simply \u2018I was demeaned and insulted\u2019\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Mugabe reportedly told his close relatives that he did not want to be buried by his former colleagues who toppled him in a coup in November 2017.<\/p>\n<p>The Roman Catholic Church\u2019s Harare Diocese vicar general Father Kennedy Muguti said Grace fought to ensure Mugabe\u2019s wishes were respected.<\/p>\n<p>Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs minister Mary Mliswa was the only notable government and Zanu PF official who attended the burial.<\/p>\n<p>Zanu PF described the decision to bury Mugabe in Kutama instead of the Heroes Acre as a political gimmick.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe indeed respect the wishes of families of deceased heroes, hence get saddened when manoeuvres that border on political gimmicks begin to unfold on the issue concerning an illustrious liberation icon,\u201d Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>He said Mugabe\u2019s family had \u201csurreptitiously\u201d taken his remains to Zvimba.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The body of former president Robert Mugabe was buried yesterday at his rural home in Zvimba in a low-key event. Mugabe\u2019s family gathered at Kutama village where they witnessed his burial under tight security. The late president\u2019s relatives claimed there were people that wanted to \u201cdefile\u201d the 95-year-old\u2019s body for ritual purposes. Mugabe\u2019s family decided [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":14157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,12],"tags":[91,811,30,632],"class_list":{"0":"post-14269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-head-lines","9":"category-policy","10":"tag-harare","11":"tag-mugbes-burial","12":"tag-robert-mugabe","13":"tag-zvimba"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mugabe buried amid bizarre revelations - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The body of former president Robert Mugabe was buried yesterday at his rural home in Zvimba in a low-key event.Mugabe\u2019s family gathered at Kutama village\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mugabe-buried-amid-bizarre-revelations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mugabe buried amid bizarre revelations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The body of former president Robert Mugabe was buried yesterday at his rural home in Zvimba in a low-key event.Mugabe\u2019s family gathered at Kutama village\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mugabe-buried-amid-bizarre-revelations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-30T17:28:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/2019\/09\/Mugabe-burial.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"547\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mugabe-buried-amid-bizarre-revelations\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mugabe-buried-amid-bizarre-revelations\",\"name\":\"Mugabe buried amid bizarre revelations - 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