HARARE – The late former president Robert Mugabe’s children have a legal right to appeal a traditional court’s order for his exhumation, the High Court has ruled.
Bona Mutsahuni-Mugabe and her siblings Tinotenda Robert Junior and Bellarmine Chatunga had appealed a ruling of Chief Zvimba that Mugabe, who died in September 2019, should be exhumed from his rural home in Kutama and be buried at the National Heroes Acre in Harare – a shrine reserved for prominent veterans of Zimbabwe’s 1970s war of independence.
The appeal was thrown out by Chinhoyi magistrate Ruth Moyo who ruled that only their mother Grace Mugabe, against whom the traditional court made its finding, could appeal Chief Zvimba’s ruling.
Justices Fatima Maxwell and Amy Tsanga, who heard the Mugabe children’s appeal in March before reserving judgement, have now ruled that the three siblings can intervene in the matter.
“In the court below, appellants stated that the orders of Chief Zvimba affect their personal proper fiduciary functions at law. That qualification removes them from the group of mere busy bodies,” the judges ruled on Friday.
“Under customary law, the quest for justice is marked by procedural flexibility in permitting aggrieved parties, in any case, to access the court at any time.
“As courts, it is therefore important that we do not fall into the dangerous trap of downplaying these very positive procedural customary aspects by thrusting formalistic interpretations upon them. The court below erred in restricting the right of appeal to persons who were parties in proceedings before the community court.”
Bona and her siblings, through their lawyer Advocate Tawanda Zhuwarara, told the court that tampering with their father’s grave would be a criminal offence.
The High Court ruling means the case returns to the Magistrates’ Court where a magistrate must look into the merits of the children’s appeal against Chief Zvimba’s judgment.
Bona said only she and her brothers, being Mugabe’s heirs, have rights over their father’s grave.
The reburial saga erupted last year when Chief Zvimba, real name Stanley Mhondoro, summoned Mugabe’s widow to appear before his traditional court and explain why her husband was buried at the family courtyard, he claimed in breach of traditional customs.
This followed a request by village head Tinos Manongovere that Mugabe’s remains must be exhumed and reburied at the Heroes Acre.
Grace Mugabe did not attend the hearing held at Murombedzi Growth Point.
Chief Zvimba passed a default judgement ordering her to pay a fine of five cows and two goats for breach of traditional customs.
The chief also ordered Mugabe’s reburial at the Heroes Acre before July 1, 2021, prompting the children to approach the court on appeal.
