Plane leaves Zimbabwe for Singapore to bring home Ex-President Mugabe's body

A plane has left Zimbabwe for Singapore carrying government officials and relatives to bring home the body of Robert Mugabe, but it was still not clear where the former leader would be buried, a family spokesman said on Monday.

Mugabe’s family is pushing back against the government’s plan to bury him at the National Heroes Acre monument in Harare and wants him to be interred in his home village, relatives have told Reuters.

Leo Mugabe, the late president’s nephew and family spokesman, said a charter plane left Harare for Singapore just after 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Monday.

Mugabe’s body was expected to arrive in Zimbabwe on Wednesday at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT), Leo Mugabe told Reuters.

But when pressed on where Mugabe would be buried, Leo Mugabe was non-committal.

Mugabe was a chief and he will be buried in accordance with tradition. The chiefs have not told us where he will be buried, so it is not clear yet. I also don’t know, he said.

In some parts of Zimbabwe, burials of chiefs are a secret affair and people are only told the resting place afterwards.

Mugabe died on Friday aged 95 in Singapore, where he had long received medical treatment.