Former First lady Grace Mugabe has responded to reports of the court order requesting the exhumation of her late husband former President Robert Mugabe.
Appearing in public for the first time since Mugabe’s death and subsequent court order that requested Mugabe’s exhumation, Grace said she followed her late husband’s instructions.
Grace appeared at the burial of her ally and G40 proponent Sarah Mahoka who died in an accident on Thursday night in Karoi. Mahoka died on the spot after her vehicle collided head-on with a haulage truck.
“I buried my husband according to the instructions he left me, those who want to exhume him, go ahead, we are watching” Grace said while addressing mourners.
Mugabe’s exhumation saga stole the limelight after a magistrate in Chinhoyi ordered that the body of former President Robert Mugabe be exhumed from his rural home village and be reburied at the National Heroes’ Acre in Harare, reigniting the family versus government feud over the burial of the late veteran leader.
The ruling came after the Zvimba chief dragged the Mugabe family to his local traditional court on charges of breaching traditional laws by burying Mugabe in his homestead.
Mugabe’s children then approached the courts seeking to challenge the traditional chief’s orders.
Mugabe died in September 2019, aged 95 and was buried at Kutama after his family declined to have him interred at the National Heroes’ Acre.
The former leader, who was deposed in 2017 after the military interfered in the Zanu PF succession wars, having ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, had expressed a wish to be buried next to the grave of his mother, Bona Mugabe, the family said.
In May, a traditional court in Zimbabwe ordered Mugabe’s widow, Grace, to exhume his body and have him reburied at the Heroes’ Acre.
The chief said Grace Mugabe had not followed local traditions when burying the former president, and also fined her five cattle and a goat.
Mugabe’s three children filed a court application for the chief’s order to be set aside, arguing that he acted out of his authority when he approached a village court to decide on Mugabe’s rightful place of burial.
A close family member told the Zim Morning Post, at the material time, that “the family will regroup and approach the High Court.”
“It is a judgment from hell and has an external hand behind it,” said the family member who requested anonymity.
