Security tight as Zimbabwe's Mugabe gets a private burial

Security was tight as the family of longtime Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe prepared on Saturday to bury him at his rural home.

A highly private farewell was planned for one of Africa's most divisive figures after a weeks-long family dispute with the administration that forced him from power.

Only approved guests and funeral parlour vans were allowed, a decision out of sync with the local tradition that funerals are free for all to attend. One elderly neighbour threw a tantrum after being blocked at the gate.

Mugabe's family earlier had agreed to a government request to bury him at a shrine in the capital but only after a hilltop mausoleum was built to set him apart from former comrades.

But the government on Thursday abruptly announced the family had changed its mind, leaving it with scaffolding around the partially completed memorial.

A spokesman for the ruling ZANU-PF party, Simon Khaya Moyo, called the private burial "most unfortunate."
In a statement, Moyo added that "we indeed respect the wishes of families of deceased heroes, hence we are saddened when maneuvers that border on political gimmicks begin to unfold on an issue concerning an illustrious liberation icon."