The bizarre burial of Robert Mugabe saw the former Zimbabwean leader interred in a steel-lined coffin under a layer of concrete on Saturday, following a bitter dispute over his resting place between government officials, traditional leaders and family members.

Twenty-two days after he died, the body of the strongman was finally buried next to his home with second wife Grace Mugabe in Kutama, Zvimba, the village of his birth, 55 miles north west of Harare.

His eldest nephew, Leo Mugabe, who played a central role in the prolonged burial drama, said the coffin which brought his embalmed body to Harare from Singapore had to be changed for security reasons.

“People really are after his body or his body parts, so we wanted something that is tamper-proof. That is why the casket was changed,” he told a local radio station.