Mugabe has finally said something about the issue of Cecil John Rhodes and all of his accompaniments, be they statues or graves. We all know by now that the statue of Rhodes at UCT will be removed (and placed in storage on 9th of April at 17h00, in case you want to be there to wave goodbye), but what of his grave in Zimbabwe?

Last we heard, Zweli Malinga, a Zanu-PF member, fully supported Rhodes’ body being sent back to England, but the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe say it should stay as a reminder of the country’s history.

But what does Mugabe think?

We have his corpse and you have his statue. What do you want us do with him? Dig him up? We cannot tell you what to do with the statue but we and my people feel we need to leave him down there.

Bob spoke at the Union Buildings in Pretoria yesterday after signing some bilateral agreements. He added that “they did not know Rhodes until he was forwarded to [them] as a corpse” and that Rhodes was a “strange and mischievous man”.

On a side note, Mugabe thanked South Africa “for accommodating his countrymen despite them crossing the border without passports…disturbing the country’s social system”. How very thoughtful of him.

Right, so, in a nutshell, South Africa is going moggy about a statue, and Zim is pretty chilled about his actual remains. We can only wait and see how this grave situation (no pun intended) unfolds.

[Source: TimesLive]