Former Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe will be given a state funeral on Saturday with a dozen African leaders expected to pay tribute to a man lauded as a colonial-era liberation hero.
Mugabe, who died last week in Singapore aged 95, left Zimbabwe torn over the legacy of his 37-year rule marked by brutal repression and economic crisis.
He died almost two years after former army loyalists forced him out in 2017, following a power struggle over what was widely perceived as his bid to have his wife Grace succeed him.
His body was returned from Singapore on Wednesday to a country divided and still struggling with inflation and the food and fuel shortages caused by decades of economic crisis.
"Despite certain misgivings, within certain quarters about his so-called mistakes... the government's position is clear," Foreign Minister Sibusiso Moyo told AFP. "The late President Mugabe is an icon."
"Things were much better under Comrade Mugabe, prices of basics were lower," said Daydream Goba, 27, using an affectionate term for Mugabe. "Now, we can barely manage."