Riyaz Patel
The family of former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe gathered in his rural homestead of Kutama Saturday to attend a much-awaited burial ceremony three weeks after his death.
Mugabe died in a Singapore hospital on September 6, two years after a military coup ended his 37-year rule.
He was 95.
Hundreds of mourners, some wearing Mugabe-emblazoned T-shirts, assembled for the low-key event.
It was initially intended to be a private family ceremony.
Some were singing and dancing, while others sat quietly under two white tents set up for the occasion.
Mugabe’s widow Grace and his children accompanied the casket draped in Zimbabwe’s green, yellow, red and black flag.
No senior government officials were in attendance.
The Mugabe family decided to bury Zimbabwe’s founding father in Kutama after weeks of wrangling with the government, who wanted the body to rest at the National Heroes Acre in Harare.
Many in Mugabe’s family are bitter over his ouster and the role played by his deputy and successor Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was elected president in 2018.
Former guerilla leader Mugabe took power after independence from white minority rule in 1980.
