HARARE – Late former Vice President and national hero Phelekezela Mphoko’s body is set to arrive in the country from India this Thursday evening ahead of his burial at his plot outside Bulawayo.
This was announced by government in a statement on Wednesday.
“Be advised that the body of the late former Vice President, Cde Phelekezela Mphoko will land at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport on Thursday at 5PM.
“The body is expected to depart to Bulawayo on Friday at 9AM,” read the statement by the Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage ministry.
Mphoko, who served as VP from 2014 to 2017, died aged 84 from an undisclosed illness. He was in India where he was receiving treatment.
He was immediately declared a national hero by the government, paving way for his interment at the national shrine in Harare where many of the independence war’s top figures are buried.
The late VP’s burial arrangements were yet to be known.
The family has stated that Mphoko expressed his wishes to be buried at his plot in Douglasdale outside Bulawayo.
In a text message sent to ZimLive Wednesday morning, Sduduzo Mphoko, daughter to the late VP, confirmed the liberation war hero will indeed be buried at his plot as per his wish.
“On behalf of the family, I hereby confirm that my father’s wish has been granted. He will be laid to rest at his home in Bulawayo,” Sduduzo Mphoko said while promising to share funeral details at a later stage.
The family did not give reasons why the former ambassador to Russia and South Africa chose to snub of the national shrine.
However, speculation points to disgruntlement over the ill-treatment he has received from the Emmerson Mnangagwa led government from the time he lost his job in a November 2017 coup that removed Robert Mugabe as president.
Mphoko is the latest among the liberation war’s towering figures to reject a National Heroes Acre burial.
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