HARARE—A traditional Zimbabwean court has ruled that late President Robert Mugabe be exhumed and reburied at the country’s national shrine by July 1, according to the ruling released on Monday.
The decision came following a hearing on Thursday conducted in Zvimba, 98 kilometers (61 miles) west of the capital Harare, in the absence of the former president’s widow, Grace Mugabe, who is currently in Singapore.
In his ruling, Chief Stanly Wurayayi Mhondoro said the late Mugabe “shall be exhumed and reburied at the National Heroes Acre in Harare within 30 days or before the 1st of June 2021.”
“You are also ordered to gather clothes and all his belongings and surrender them on or before the 1st of July,” he added
The former first lady has also received a fine of five cattle and two goats to cover the costs of a cleansing ceremony, saying Mugabe’s remains had been buried inappropriately.
She was also ordered to provide compensation to the workers who would be tasked with exhuming and reburying the remains of her husband.
The Mugabe family has scoffed at the chief’s ruling, saying that matters in Mugabe’s village were not under the traditional leader’s jurisdiction.
“They want to be relevant to the sitting president and they offered to help him with the reburial of Robert Mugabe,” said Leo Mugabe, the former president’s nephew.
“All we know is they sued the wrong person, Grace, and as the Mugabe family we are not in agreement with the ruling,” he added.
Mugabe died on Sept. 6, 2019, at the age of 95 but his family refused to have him buried at the Heroes Acre amid a political feud emanating from the November 2017 coup. He was succeeded by Emmerson Mnangagwa, who became president on Nov. 24, 2017.
