HARARE – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will be one of 14 African heads of states and government who will attend the burial of former Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa in Lusaka on Wednesday.

Mugabe’s spokesperson, George Charamba, yesterday confirmed that Mugabe would be in Lusaka to pay his last respects to his late arch-critic who once caused him immense embarrassment when he labelled crisis-torn Zimbabwe a “sinking Titanic”.

“President Mugabe will be at the burial of the former SADC (Southern African Development Community) chairperson,” Charamba said. “He (Mwanawasa) was a colleague in the region and the President (Mugabe) will pay his last respect for the late dear leader of Zambia.”

Charamba said “several” ministers would accompany Mugabe.

Mwanawasa, from a newer generation of African leaders, had been more critical of Mugabe than the leaders of many of Zimbabwe's neighbours in the region many of whom have stronger ties to southern Africa’s struggle against colonial rule and in which Mugabe played a prominent role.

In a statement read on his behalf to a SADC summit in South Africa a few days before his death last month, Mwanawasa said Zimbabwe’s post-election political crisis was "a serious blot on the culture of democracy in our sub-region".

Earlier in May, after Zimbabwean election authorities had delayed releasing results of a March 29 first round voting in which opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC party appeared headed for a sweeping victory over the ruling ZANU PF party, Mwanawasa angered Mugabe when he called an urgent regional meeting in Lusaka seeking immediate release of the results.

Mugabe boycotted the meeting, sending his trusted lieutenant Emmerson Mnangagwa to represent him.

Mwanawasa, who was chairman of SADC, had been expected to lead criticism against Mugabe’s controversial rule during a July summit of the African Union in Egypt but suffered a stroke and had to be airlifted to a hospital in France leaving the summit to proceed without him.

Tsvangirai described Mwanawasa as a "champion of the democratisation" of Africa while Western governments feted the former Zambian leader for his fight against corruption and his decision to break ranks with the rest of Africa and openly criticise Mugabe.

Fourteen heads of state and government have indicated that they would attend the Zambian leader’s burial.

Most of them were expected in Lusaka last night, while Mugabe, South African President Thabo Mbeki and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame were expected to arrive today.