Confirmation follows tussle between family and President Mnangagwa over burial site.
Late former Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will be buried at a monument for national heroes in the capital, Harare, a family spokesman said, but the date has not been decided yet.
The decision to inter Mugabe at the state burial site is the latest turn in the tussle between his family and President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s once-trusted deputy who helped remove him from power in late 2017.
On Thursday, the family had said that the former Zimbabwe president, whose body was flown back from Singapore on Wednesday, would be buried in his home town in a private ceremony.
But on Friday, family spokesman Leo Mugabe said it had been decided the deceased would be buried at Heroes’ Acre after consultations with influential traditional chiefs.
“I can confirm that he will be buried at the National Heroes Acre on Sunday,” Leo told reporters at the family’s Blue Roof house.
“The private burial will be post-Sunday … there are certain preparations that need to be done at Heroes’ Acre and those developments will take time. These developments are the specifications from the chiefs themselves,” Leo added.
Leo said an official ceremony would be followed by a private family event at the monument to heroes of the liberation war against white minority rule.
The former president has been lying in state in Harare since Thursday after the government announced three days of national mourning. His body was on view at Rufaro Stadium for a second day on Friday.
A stampede on Thursday injured several people trying to view it.
