Grace Mugabe fined five cows

Grace Mugabe, widow of former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has been ordered by a traditional court to give away five cows and two goats for having buried her husband in a manner deemed inappropriate.

The court, which cannot compel the accused but whose decisions have a strong symbolic significance, met Thursday morning in the absence of the accused, Grace Mugabe.

She is accused of having buried her husband, who died in 2019 at the age of 95, in the courtyard of her birthplace in Kutama, 90 km west of the capital Harare.

The customary court met in Murombedzi in the presence of about fifteen people.

Journalists could not attend the hearing, as the entourage of the traditional chief said that he wanted “some privacy”. Chief Zvimba, born Stanley Mhondoro, claimed that Robert Mugabe was supposed to be buried in a location chosen by his mother or the family he was born.

The chief now wants Mrs Mugabe to exhume the body for reburial at a family gravesite where his mother, Bona, was buried.