By Stephen Ubanna
Not may be people were surprised that Cyril Ramophosa, President of South Africa and Chairman, African Union a, AU, and other African Heads of State and Government , were at New York to attend the United Nations , UN, General Assembly Meeting, instead of being at the burial of Late Robert Mugabe, a former President of Zimbabwe and who incidentally was one of the longest member of the Union having ruled his country for 37 years.
This is because of the exclusion of the Zimbabwean government from the burial arrangement by the Family, which could have made it a state burial at the National Heroes Acre in Harare, the country’s Capital. The former Zimbabwean leader’s family were said to have refused the involvement of the government in the burial on the ground that he was ridiculed in 2017, by the military for removing him from power and replaced him with Emmerson Manangawa, his estranged former Vice President, who fought alongside, with him during the country’s Liberation war.
Recall that prior to his death in the Asian country of Singapore Hospital on September 6, 2019, at the age of 95, the late Zimbabwean leader was said to have sounded a note of warning to the family members not allow his body to be taken for burial at the National Hero’s Acre by the government. ‘’I will not be buried at the Heroes Acre. I was ridiculed’’, he was reported to have repeatedly said. Note that he had died of prostrate of Cancer, according to the Doctor’s diagnosis.
Aware of the deep animosity of the former First Family against the government, Manangawa, had pushed for the government be allowed to bury him at the Heroes Acre Shrine which was developed by him in Harare. It was reported that the government had pushed to bury the former President at the Heroes Shrine in Harare, but only after a Hilltop mausoleum was built to set him apart from former Heroes of the country’s Liberation war buried there.
The government may have taken the decision to gladden the heart of the family members and the last followers of the former President, in order to make it a state burial that would attract other foreign Heads of States and Governments, particular, his former Colleagues in the AU and Diplomats.
According to Diplomatic sources, the family had played along with the government without making known its intention which was kept a closely guided secret.
Barely three days to the final burial of the former Zimbabwean leader regarded as ‘’a founding father, liberator and torch bearer’’, in political circles, the family were said to have changed its mind, forcing the government to cancel its elaborate preparations that had been made to receive foreign dignitaries for the burial .
In apparent reaction to the family Change of mind, President, Manangawa, on Thursday, September 26, 2019, told the mourning nation of the family decision to bury the former President. It came as a shock to the Manangawa and other senior government Officials. This may have forced him to travel to Nework, for the UN, General Asssembly meeting to overcome the shock and embarrassment.
The family was said to have made all the n burial arrangement at his Kutama village in Zvimba district, on Saturday, September 28, 2019. It was therefore not very surprising why Manangawa and senior Zimbabwean government Officials including foreign dignitaries were absent at the burial described as’’ low key event’’.
Only family members were said to have witnessed his interment, which took place in a dusty courtyard on his Kutama property . Shuvai Gunbochuma, the junior sister of Grace, the former First Lady of Zimbabwe, may have spoken the mind of the family members when she said that they were worried about the’’ low key burial’’. She noted that given his kind of person, late Mugabe’s burial ought to be a special one at the National Heroes Acre, where he had buried other Heroes in the past.
Political watchers believe that the burial of the former Zimbabwean despot marks an end of an’’arm wrestling match that has been going on for weeks between his relatives and the Manangawa government, over his final resting place’’. The AFP reports that the battle between the family and the government illustrated the high tensions that had been going on for almost two years between the last followers of the former President and Manangawa. But the family and late Mugabe followers had the last word.
Until his death, Mugabe , was said to have held a tenacious grudge against Manangawa, but that could not stop him in ensuring that the government footed his medical bills in the Singaporean Hospital which ran into millions of dollar.
In assessing his 37 rule of Zimbabwe, Political analysts believe that he left the country traumatised by repression and ruined by economic crisis, which the Managawa Administration has been battling since 2017 to fix.
