You Will Not Exhume My Husband – Grace Mugabe

Grace Mugabe has challenged a court order to exhume the remains of her late husband, Robert Mugabe, for reburial at the National Shrine.

Mugabe’s family say that it was their father’s wish before he died, not to be buried at the shrine, which is also a tourist attraction site and for that reason, they would be going against his wish to rebury his remains there.

The late Robert Mugabe died at the age of 95, on September 6, 2019, in Singapore after 37 years of autocratic and dictatorship ruling in Zimbabwe.

He was supposed to be buried at the National Heroes’ Acre which is set aside for the heroes of the liberation struggle against the colonial rule according to the Zimbabwean government, but his family opposed the idea.

He was later buried in Kutama, his rural home village which is about 90km west of the capital Harare after weeks of prolonged wrangles about his final resting place.

In May 2021, a traditional leader fined the widow, Grace Mugabe, five cows and two goats citing that they had improperly buried the late president Robert Mugabe and ordered for the exhumation of the body and fresh reburial at Harare, as it is supposed to be.

Mugabe’s children appealed the directive which was however dismissed by a magistrate court last month saying that the children did not have a legal right or say to challenge the exhumation of their father.

Grace Mugabe was not happy with this decision which prompted her to take over the legal matters at hand.

The Monday papers state that the widow appealed to the high court citing that the magistrate court decision to uphold the traditional chief’s directive was grossly irregular and unreasonable.