To evade a major embarassment that would have seen former President Robert Mugabe buried in his rural Zvimba home, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has given in to former First Lady Grace Mugabe’s demands that he confers a special honour on her late husband by constructing a mausoleum at the National Heroes Acre’s hilltop. where the former leader will be buried.

Mnangagwa told mourners that Mugabe will only be buried upon completion of the mausoleum, to be built at the apex of the hill that hosts the national shrine.

President Mnangagwa said this at State House last night while addressing journalists after meeting Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who is among Heads of State and Government that arrived yesterday to pay their condolences.

President Mnangagwa said today’s State funeral service, to be held at the National Sports Stadium, will proceed as planned.

“We are having service tomorrow (today) at National Sports Stadium,” he said. “We are building a mausoleum for our founding father at the top of the hill at Heroes Acre, (on Sunday) it won’t be finished, so we will only bury him after we have completed the construction of the mausoleum.”

Asked how long it will take to finish the mausoleum, President Mnangagwa said work had already begun.

“It is far much easier to ask the builders on its completion,” he said. “If l say it’s going to be finished tomorrow and it is not, you write; ‘President tells a lie’.”