Mugabe allies fear burial arrests
Robert Mugabe’s funeral will go ahead without some of his closest confidants, who fear being arrested if they return from exile.
Former cabinet minister Jonathan Moyo fled Zimbabwe after the November 2017 coup that overthrew Mugabe.
Many other friends and allies are wanted on corruption charges.
Government spokesperson Nick Mangwana said: “There is no immunity for bereavement. No-one chased them away from Zimbabwe. They are free to come [to the funeral] but that is not to say if they have issues to answer to they won’t be taken in.”
Mugabe, 95, died in a Singapore hospital early on Friday, with his wife, Grace, by his side. It marked the end of a man who started his presidency as a hero and ended it reviled as a corrupt tyrant.
● Some of Robert Mugabe’s closest confidants will miss his funeral to avoid arrest or the threat of persecution.
They were members of G40, a Zanu-PF clique of relatively young politicians with which Mugabe, 95, aligned himself in the last days of his 37-year presidency.
After the coup in November 2017 that ousted Mugabe, the army claimed the G40 consisted of criminal elements, and abduction attempts and attacks on some of their homes scared them into exile.
The key G40 personalities who risk arrest if they return to Zimbabwe for Mugabe’s funeral are:
● Jonathan Moyo, 62, who served in three Mugabe cabinets. He faces corruption charges if he returns from SA;
● Saviour Kasukuwere, 48, who held two ministerial appointments under Mugabe;
● Mandi Chimene, 60, the former Manicaland provincial affairs minister who was a prominent opponent of then vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa’s succession ambitions before the coup. She failed to attend her 35-year-old daughter’s funeral early this year, remaining in exile in Mozambique;
● Patrick Zhuwao, 52, Mugabe’s nephew and a minister in his uncle’s final cabinet. “People can say I ran away. Yes, I did. It’s better than to wait to be killed,” he said after fleeing to SA following the coup;
● Robert Zhuwao, Mugabe’s nephew, who is wanted on corruption charges; and
● Walter Mzembi, 55, a former minister of tourism and foreign affairs, who faces corruption charges.
A Zanu-PF source told the Sunday Times the G40 members, all of whom were expelled by Zanu-PF after the coup, wanted to attend Mugabe’s funeral.
“Some of them have even asked for assistance, but they are scared that they will be arrested for their political machinations. I feel pity, especially for the Mugabe boys [nephews Patrick and Robert].
“They are at the core of the family and the old man was like a father figure to them.”
Kasukuwere returned from exile in SA after the coup but found himself hauled before the courts on numerous criminal allegations. He returned to SA in violation of his bail conditions and his holiday home in Vumba was seized by the state.
The former minister said he would make travel arrangements once the date of Mugabe’s funeral had been set, but government spokesperson Nick Mangwana said: “There is no immunity for bereavement.”
He added: “No-one chased them away from Zimbabwe. They are free to come but that is not to say if they have issues to answer to they won’t be taken in.”