HARARE – The regional bloc Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Wednesday honoured the late Zimbabwe former President Robert Mugabe as one of the founding fathers of Southern Africa.
The late Mugabe was honoured at the SADC summit being held in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) running under the theme Promoting industrialisation through, agro-processing, mineral beneficiation and regional value chains for inclusive and resilient economic growth.
“SADC honours its founding fathers. Former First Lady, Dr Grace Mugabe, received the award for the late former President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.
“The awards are a way of honouring and saying thank you to the SADC pioneers for setting the foundations for a common future for the region,” government announced on Twitter.
Zimbabwe’s former First Lady Grace Mugabe accepted the award before posing for photos with President Emmerson Mnangagwa. The pair last met publicly in 2019 at Mugabe’s funeral.
In 2017 then President Mugabe sacked Mnangagwa as vice president. A few days later, the late Mugabe was toppled by Mnangagwa in a military-backed coup.
Sadc also honoured other late founding leaders who include Angola’s Augustinho Neto, Botswana’s Seretse Khama, Eswatini King Sobhuza II, Malawi’s Kamuzu Banda, Mozambique’s Samora Machel, Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere and Zambia’s Kenneth Kaunda.
