A government spokesman says Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe now will be buried at his rural home, the latest twist in the drama around his final resting place.

Nick Mangwana on Thursday said the government “is cooperating with the Mugabe family in their new position” but he did not say when the burial will take place in Kutama.

The burial place of one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders has been a source of mystery and contention since his death earlier this month at age 95. His family has been keeping the body at an expansive mansion in a suburb of the capital, Harare, waiting for the completion of a mausoleum at the National Heroes Acre. The burial shrine is reserved mainly for the independence war and ruling party elites.

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Robert Mugabe, the former Zimbabwean leader, died from cancer at the age of 95, the current President has said. He passed away on September 6 in Singapore as his chemotherapy treatment was stopped because it was no longer effective.

A state Funeral

Rober Mugabe's burial has been delayed for a month but he got a state funeral where more than ten African leaders and several former presidents attended the service. The crowd filled about 30 percent of the stadium and those attending were mostly the supporters of Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta described Mugabe as “a great icon of African Liberation and a visionary leader and relentless champion of African dignity”.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, the President of Zimababwe hailed Mugabe as a “Bold, steadfast revolutionary”. He also claimed that “A giant tree of Africa has fallen”. He further praised Mugabe for seizing land from white farmers. He also led the bitter guerrilla war to end white-minority rule in the country. “Go Well Our Revolutionary Icon” and “Farewell Gallant Son of the Soil” were among the banners praising Mugabe which were seen at the state funeral.

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Mugabe's Wife Grace Regains Prominence

The controversy swirling around the burial of Zimbabwe’s founding leader, Robert Mugabe, centers on his widow, Grace, who has remained dramatically cloaked behind a heavy black veil as she succeeded in getting the country’s President to scrap his plans for the ex-leader to be buried in a simple plot alongside other national heroes and instead build a grand new mausoleum for her husband. Known as a strong-willed woman with political ambitions, Grace Mugabe has made the most of her role as the grieving widow. Some in Zimbabwe think she is using the issue to reassert herself as a force to be reckoned with, in the country.