The remains of Zimbabwe’s founding president Robert Mugabe arrived in Harare on Wednesday from Singapore where he died last week.
Mugabe, 95, died on September 6 in a Singapore hospital where he has been admitted since April.
The body, which was accompanied by his wife Grace, Vice President Kembo Mohadi, family members and government officials, was received at Robert Mugabe International Airport by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Mugabe family members.
The body will on Thursday and Friday lie in state at Harare’s Rufaro Stadium where members of the public will be allowed to pay their final respects.
This is the same stadium where Mugabe took his oath of office and hoisted the Zimbabwean flag in April 1980 when the country gained independence.
The official funeral is set for the National Sports Stadium in Harare on Saturday where several foreign leaders are expected to attend.
According to the government, burial arrangements are still discussed but it is provisionally set for Sunday.
Mugabe’s family and Mnangagwa’s government are at odds over whether it would be at his homestead northwest of Harare or at the National Heroes Acre in the capital.
The government wants Mugabe buried at the heroes acre while the former leader’s relatives have pushed back against that plan.
They share Mugabe’s bitterness at the way his former allies, including Mnangagwa, conspired to topple him and want him buried in his home village of Kutama, some 85km northwest of Harare.
JN/APA