Paul Nyathi|Late former President Robert Mugabe family spokesperson Leo Mugabe has failed to explain categorically the uncultural continuous changing of caskets that have been seen as carrying Mugabe’s body.

Mugabe’s body arrived from Singapore in a wooden casket and it lied in state at Rufaro and National Sports Stadium in the original casket.

When the body was finally taken to Mugabe’s rural home mourners were shocked to discover that the casket had been changed.

“That is not the casket that we saw on Saturday at the National Sports Stadium,” said one of the mourners.

“This is something we have never seen. How can a coffin be changed. There must be something happening.

This week, pictures of South African opposition party Julius Malema showed him purportedly “viewing” Mugabe’s body in a completely different casket.

“I cannot answer that particular question. The safety of the corpse was taken into cognisance,” was all that Leo Mugabe could say.

Leo Mugabe further failed to commit on the current situation around the body of his late uncle following revelations that the former statesman was actually buried a couple of days ago.

Speaking to state run online media ZTN on Tuesday night, Mugabe said his last knowledge of the body was on Thursday last week when it was scheduled to leave Zvimba for Harare.

Initially, the Mugabe family announced the body would be preserved at a private mortuary after public parades in the capital, Harare, and the former leader’s rural home, Zvimba. This was to allow the body to await its purported burial inside a mausoleum at the National Heroes Acre.

Mugabe told ZTN News on Tuesday that he was specifically not aware where the body is at the moment though indicating that it had been extensively embalmed in Singapore to last a while before burial.

“When I left Harare on Thursday (last week after returning with the body from Zvimba), the general understanding was that the body would be taken to a mortuary or a place to be preserved.

“However, I have since been told that the preservation process was done in Singapore and the body can last for a month without going to the mortuary.

Leo Mugabe further hinted at a possibility that Mugabe may have indeed been buried as a cultural chief whose body needs to be dried extensively before burial which is what the embalming in Singapore could have achieved.

“If a chief were to be buried in a cave, for instance, they would have to be dried up first. Can you imagine how long it would take for the person to dry up? It is not a day’s job.

“So, culturally, they would have to spend days with the body. So, I don’t see a problem there myself. But, in any case, the fact is that we are waiting for the mausoleum to be finished. (Therefore), we still have to keep the body.”

ZimEye.com has been on top of the current situation around Mugabe’s burial with highly placed family members confirming in confidence that Mugabe was indeed buried in a cave in his rural Zvimba home as suggested by Leo Mugabe on his dicing answers on the body’s whereabouts.

According to a close relative of the Mugabe family, the late veteran politician was laid to rest last week, during a night burial ceremony at a hidden location in Zvimba only known to traditional chiefs, his wife Grace and immediate family.

“The whole thing about a mausoleum construction was a tactical diversion,” said the relative, who also served in Mugabe’s administration at one point.

“The president made it clear that he wanted to be buried in his rural home, and that his body be interred by chiefs in the area, at a location only known to them and his immediate family.

“Yes, there shall be a private event at Heroes Acre in Harare, when the mausoleum is complete, but it’s all going to be symbolic. That is not Mugabe’s final resting place, but as a founding father of our country, it made sense to have a mausoleum built for him on top of the hill at the national shrine.”