Zimbabwe: Former president's body brought to country

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AA) - The body of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who died last week in Singapore, has arrived at the country’s international airport named after him in the country’s capital Harare.

Mugabe’s successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, arrived at the airport to meet the body of his precedent whom he overthrew in a military coup in 2017.

Government ministers also scrambled to meet Mugabe’s body at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport on Wednesday, with the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) supporters present, dancing and singing at the airport to meet their late leader’s body.

When he was in power, Mugabe used to have hordes of supporters and government officials thronging the airport welcoming him from his multiple foreign trips.

But it remains unclear as to where the late Zimbabwean president would be buried -- whether at the national heroes acre or at his rural home -- in Zvimba district of Mashonaland west province.

A high-level delegation led by Vice President Kembo Mohadi was sent earlier this week to help repatriate the former Zimbabwean leader from Singapore.

Former First Lady Grace Mugabe, who donned all black, arrived at the airport with the body of her husband shying away from rolling cameras.