Zimbabwe's long-time dictator Robert Mugabe will be buried at the National Heroes Acre, a hilltop shrine reserved for the country's ruling elite, a presidential spokesman told dpa on Sunday.
Mugabe's body will be returned on Wednesday to Zimbabwe from Singapore, where he died at the age of 95 earlier this week.
‘Plans are that the former President Mugabe be buried on Sunday at the National Heroes Acre,’ presidential spokesperson George Charamba said.
Mugabe's first wife Sally is also buried at the hilltop shrine, which is reserved for Zimbabweans who have dedicated themselves to the nation.
A former liberation fighter who waged a guerilla war against white-minority rule in what was then Rhodesia, Mugabe clung to power for nearly four decades, becoming one of Africa's longest-ruling leaders.
Still revered by some on the continent for his fight against white domination, he is widely despised by others who see him as responsible for destroying the country's economy and violently oppressing any opposition.
Villagers in Mugabe's rural home, located some 85 kilometres south-west of Harare, said that Mugabe's security personnel were making it difficult to pay condolences at the site.
‘We would like to go and mourn our former leader but we are afraid - the security used to beat people for going near the compound,’ said Ephraim Paradza, a local resident.
On Saturday, armed security guards were seen interrogating people who had come to pay condolences at the gate.