Hamba kahle, Gushungo: Mutharika pays tribute to Mugabe

President Peter Mutharika  on Saturday paied tribute to Zimbabwe’s founder Robert Mugabe after he attended his state funeral.

In an interview at Robert Mugabe International Airport in Harare, Mutharika
among other things said Mugabe who led Zimbabwe for 37 years, from independence until he was removed from power by the army in November 2017, has left a strong legacy.

Mutharika,who was among Head of State who viewed Mugabe’s body followed by a military 21-gun salute, said that Mugabe fought that Africa be equally represented at the United Nations.

He said that Mugabe wanted Africa to be economically independent.

Mugabe left behind a country wrecked by hyperinflation, dollarisation and deeply entrenched corruption.

But many Zimbabweans also remember him as their country’s liberator from white minority rule and for broadening people’s access to education and land.

Mugabe was viewed by many at home and abroad as a power-obsessed autocrat who unleashed death squads, rigged elections and ruined the economy to keep control.

He died in a Singapore hospital on 6 September aged 95, far away from a country he left polarised by a raging political rivalry between its two largest political parties, ZANU-PF and the opposition MDC.

His remains will be interred in a mausoleum at the National Heroes Acre in the capital Harare in about 30 days, his nephew said.

Banners at the stadium near Mugabe’s body read “Hamba kahle, Gushungo,” (go well, Gushungo)”, a reference to his clan name, and “Go well our revolutionary icon”.

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