Flags flew at half mast in Harare on Saturday, while President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced a period of national mourning on Friday following Mugabe's death in Singapore at the age of 95.

The late former president was also granted the status of national hero on Friday.

"Mugabe provided education and scholarships to most Zimbabweans," said a Zimbabwean who gave his name as Comrade Bhobhi. "Of course he failed somewhere but on the education side he did great."

Patson Muparadzi, one of Mugabe's supporters, said he was raising money to travel to Zvimba – Mugabe's rural home village – where close relatives have gathered for a vigil.

The body of the former Zimbabwean president will arrive home next week, said his family spokesperson on Saturday.

At Mugabe's rural homestead in Mashonaland West Province, Leo Mugabe, the former president's nephew and family spokesperson, said the family had been advised by the government that the plane which will carry Mugabe's body back home plans to leave Zimbabwe for Singapore on Monday.

"In Singapore, they are preparing the body. We are choosing people that will go. The timing is more like Wednesday when the body will arrive in Zimbabwe," he said.

Leo Mugabe said the family was still deliberating on where the former leader will be buried.

"The issue to do with burial has not been finalized, what we are doing is tomorrow we will meet with the protocol people in order to get to those issues," he said.

Mugabe, a former political prisoner and guerrilla leader, swept to power in 1980 elections after a growing insurgency and economic sanctions forced the Rhodesian government to the negotiating table.

In office, he initially won international plaudits for his declared policy of racial reconciliation and for extending improved education and health services to the black majority.