Funeral Services for Late Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe Today

 

Late President Robert Mugabe Coffin Today

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - African heads of state joined thousands of Zimbabweans at a state funeral Saturday for Zimbabwe's founding president, Robert Mugabe , whose burial has been delayed for at least a month until a special mausoleum can be built for his remains.

   More than 10 African leaders and several former presidents attended the service and viewing of the body of Mugabe, who died last week in Singapore at age 95, at the National Sports Stadium in the capital, Harare. The crowd filling about 30% of the 60,000 capacity of the Chinese-built stadium. Most of those attending were supporters of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party.

   South African president Cyril Ramaphosa drew boos from the crowd, as a result of the recent attacks in Johannesburg on foreigners, including Zimbabweans. An official pleaded with the stadium crowd to let him speak. Ramaphosa apologized for the attacks.

   Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta described Mugabe as "a great icon of African liberation" and "a visionary leader and relentless champion of African dignity."

   The announcement Friday evening that that burial will be postponed until the building of a new resting place at the national Heroes' Acre Monument is the latest turn in a dramatic wrangle between Mugabe's family and President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a once-trusted deputy who helped oust Mugabe from power.

   Mnangagwa presided over Saturday's ceremony, attended by Mugabe's widow Grace, who wore a black veil.

   "A giant tree of Africa has fallen," said Mnangagwa, who hailed Mugabe as "a bold, steadfast revolutionary."

   He praised Mugabe for seizing land from white farmers. "To him, this was the grievance of all grievances of our people," Mnangagwa said. "The land has now been reunited with the people and the people have been reunited with the land." He also called on Western countries to remove sanctions imposed during Mugabe's era.

   "Go Well Our Revolutionary Icon" and "Farewell Gallant Son of the Soil" were among the banners praising Mugabe, who led the bitter guerrilla war to end white-minority rule in the country then known as Rhodesia. Mugabe was Zimbabwe's first leader and ruled the country from 1980 for 37 years, from years of prosperity to economic ruin and repression.

   He was deposed in 2017 by the military and Mnangagwa in a bloodless coup that was marked by more than 100,000 people demonstrating in Harare's streets to demand that he step down. Following Mugabe's resignation, Mnangagwa took power and won elections the next year on campaign promises he would improve the collapsed economy and create jobs. But Zimbabwe's economy has lurched from crunch to crisis and some in the crowd expressed the view that life was better under Mugabe's rule.

   "Bread was less than a dollar when we marched against him (Mugabe). It is now $9," said Munashe Gudyanga, 18. "I am just here to say `Sorry, President Mugabe, we didn't know things will be worse."'

   Some in the stadium sang an impromptu farewell to Mugabe, "When you left bread was a dollar," lyrics that implicitly criticized Mnangagwa, whose nearly two-year rule has been marked by rising prices, with inflation currently more than 175%.

   The visiting leaders viewed Mugabe's the partially open casket, followed by a 21-gun salute, a flypast by Zimbabwean air force jets and the release of 95 doves, to mark Mugabe's 95 years.

   Mugabe's body is to be viewed in his birthplace, Zvimba, on Sunday and then will be held in preservation until the new mausoleum is ready.

   In downtown Harare, many Zimbabweans were busy with their weekend errands, and expressed little interest in the funeral, which was open to the public.

   "What will I get if I go there? What will Mugabe do for me now that he failed to do when he was alive?" said Amelia Tukande, who was selling cellphone chargers along Harare's Samora Machel Avenue that leads to the stadium. "It is a waste of time. I have to work for my family."

   Others said they would have wanted to attend the funeral but cannot afford transport fares.

   "I didn't like him, but I still wanted to attend just to see for myself that he is gone ... but kombis (minivan taxis) want $3.50 just to get to the stadium," said Amos Siduna, waiting in line at a bank to get cash, which is in short supply. "That's too much money for me just to go and say `bye bye' to a corpse. Mugabe's corpse. No."

   The mourning period for Mugabe's death has been marked by the ongoing drama over where, when and how the ex-strongman will be buried. The new resting place will be built near the stadium at Heroes' Acre, a national burial site for top officials of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party who contributed to ending white colonial rule

   The mausoleum will be at an elevated site above the other graves, according to Mnangagwa and a Mugabe family spokesman.

   Grace had previously insisting on a private burial rather than the state funeral and burial in a simple plot alongside other national heroes planned by the government.

   "We are building a mausoleum for our founding father at the top of the hill at Heroes' Acre," Mnangagwa said on state television Friday night, consenting to the Mugabe family's wishes.

   ---

The Late President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe

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Rest in Peace Robert Mugabe - Former President of Zimbabwe

The Late President Robert Mugabe (1924 -2019)

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Robert Mugabe will be buried at a hilltop shrine reserved exclusively for Zimbabwe's ruling elite, an official said Saturday, as the southern African nation began several days of official mourning.

   Mugabe, who was 95 when he died Friday in Singapore, will be laid to rest in Harare at the National Heroes Acre, which has been set aside for Zimbabweans who have made huge sacrifices during the war against white-minority rule and who dedicated themselves to the nation, which emerged from the ashes of colonial Rhodesia.

   "Comrade Mugabe will be buried at the Heroes Acre," deputy information minister Energy Mutodi said. "That is where he deserves to rest."

   Leo Mugabe, a nephew of Robert Mugabe and a family spokesman, told The Associated Press that the date of the funeral and other details, including when Mugabe's body will arrive in Zimbabwe, weren't yet available.

   "Arrangements are not in place yet," he said in a text message.

   Located on a hilltop, and built with the help of North Korean architects, the plot has a commanding view of Harare, features a huge bronze statue of three guerrilla fighters and boasts black marble and granite flourishes.

   Mugabe is viewed by many as a national hero despite decades of rule that left the country struggling. He was an ex-guerrilla chief who took power in 1980 when Zimbabwe shook off white minority rule and presided for decades while economic turmoil and human rights violations eroded its early promise.

   Mugabe had been forced to relinquish power by a previously loyal military in November 2017.

   Flags flew at half-staff Saturday, but there were no public activities to mark the death of a man who singularly shaped the once-prosperous country in his own image and created a repressive system that some say remains even today.

   Reaction to his death was mixed, although praise ironically came mostly from ruling party officials and military leaders.

   The state-run Herald newspaper, which vilified Mugabe when he was forced to resign and when he subsequently voiced support for the opposition, carried glowing tributes.

   In a "commemorative edition," the newspaper, which often acts as a mouthpiece of the government, carried a montage of his pictures with the headline: "Robert Mugabe-1924-2019" on its front page and glowing reports throughout.

   In an editorial page, the newspaper praised Mugabe for "his uncompromising stance when it came to the rights of Africans."

   "Whatever happened towards the end of his leadership should not be used to rubbish the good things that he did during his life," the commander of the Zimbabwe Defense Forces and one of the commanders who led the military campaign to oust Mugabe after years of propping his rule, was quoted as saying in a separate story in the newspaper.

   Others were less charitable. "95 and out," read the privately-owned Newsday newspaper.

   "Despite his intellectual prowess, Mugabe's failure to let go of power when it was time was his major undoing . In short, he was a liberator who turned villain. Leaders need to know when to draw the line," said the newspaper in an editorial.

   "End of an era as Mugabe dies, leaves Zim poor, divided," read the front page headline of another privately-owned newspaper, the Daily News.

   "Notwithstanding the many mistakes that he made, many Zimbabweans will probably agree that had he not held on to power beyond the 1990s, he would today be largely remembered as one of Africa's best leaders in history," the paper said in an editorial.

   Both newspapers were major targets of Mugabe's vitriol, with editors and reporters routinely arrested during Mugabe's rule.

   On the streets of the capital, Harare, few seemed bothered as people struggled to cope with biting economic problems largely blamed by critics on Mugabe's rule and perpetuated by his successor and an ally who later turned foe, President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa took power in 2017 with the help of the military.

   "Who cares?" said Percy Maute, a street vendor pushing a cart full of tomatoes along a busy street named after the former president.  "I don't care. I am too busy looking for money to mourn a man who put me in this position."

   A small group of people drank beer and sang pro-Mugabe songs outside a liquor outlet and wore T-shirts with Mugabe's face. Although only a few people cared to join or commiserate with them, they danced vigorously and spoke glowingly of a man they said fought for the liberation of not just Zimbabwe, but "the rest of Africa."

   "Bob was our hero, he taught us that the white man is not a master," they sang. Mugabe was popularly known by the nickname Bob.