Relatives fly to Singapore to bring Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe home

A charter flight left Harare at 9am on Monday and was expected to return by Wednesday afternoon, the former president’s nephew said

Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years from its independence until he was ousted in a coup in 2017, died in a Singapore hospital on Friday

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Robert Mugabe, the former president of Zimbabwe, died at a hospital in Singapore on Friday. Photo: AFP

Published: 6:12pm, 9 Sep 2019Updated: 6:12pm, 9 Sep 2019

Close relatives and government officials flew out of Zimbabwe on Monday to collect the body of ex-president Robert Mugabe from Singapore where he died last week, his nephew said.

Mugabe, a guerilla leader who swept to power after Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain and went on to rule for 37 years until he was ousted in 2017, died on Friday, aged 95.

A charter flight left Harare at 9am on Monday and was expected to return home by Wednesday afternoon, Leo Mugabe said.

On arrival, the body will be taken straight to his rural village in Zvimba, about 90 kilometres west of the capital Harare, for an overnight wake.

On Thursday and Friday the body will lie in state at Rufaro Stadium in Mbare township in Harare for the public to pay their final respects, he said.

The 35,000-seater stadium is where Mugabe took his oath of office at a colourful ceremony when colonial Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith handed over the country to Mugabe.