Details on when, how and where the late former President Robert Mugabe will be buried would be known today after a tense closed door meeting between President Mnangagwa and former First Lady Grace Mugabe.
This was revealed by Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet George Charamba, who is also the Presidential spokesperson, last night in an exclusive interview with state media.
While under normal circumstances there would not have been such a meeting, the meeting has been necessitated by a stance from the Mugabe family that the late President demanded that he be not buried at the National Heroes Acre and that President Emmerson Mnangagwa be excluded from the burial.
Government has been announcing that Mugabe will be buried on Sunday at the National Heroes Acre, while the Mugabe family has remained silent on the matter indicating that family elders and chiefs from the Gushungo clan will announce the arrangements when the body arrives at Mugabe’s Zvimba family home.
The body arrived yesterday afternoon and spent the night at Mugabe’s Harare home.
Meanwhile, elders from the Mugabe family are reported to have met last night and no word has yet been communicated on what the meeting resolved. Grace Mugabe is expected to carry the decision of the elders into Mnangagwa’s meeting.
Charamba confirmed that Grace Mugabe will meet Mnangagwa this morning after failing to meet last night allegedly “to craft the final programme of the funeral.” The meeting could not take place as Grace Mugabe still had to meet with the family elders.
“The widow of the former President will meet with His Excellency the President tomorrow (today) morning where details of the entire programme will be finalised,” he said.
“The meeting could not take place as was originally planned for two basic reasons; we needed to give time to the former First Lady to settle down, but more critically, there was a stream of Zimbabweans who were going to the residence of the former President to condole with the former First Lady so it was then decided that we defer the meeting to tomorrow (today).”
“We expect that by mid-morning, there will be certainty to the details of the actual programme.”