Former Zimbabwe’s first lady, Grace Mugabe, has been summoned to appear before a traditional court over the “improper” burial of the late President Robert Mugabe.

The former first lady is being accused of having gone against local culture by burying her husband at the family homestead, instead of a place “chosen by his relatives and mother”.

In a letter from Chief Zvimba, the traditional chief of Mugabe’s home region, Mrs Mugabe is being required to exhume the late president’s body so that he can be reburied “according to the culture of the Zvimba people”.

She has also been asked to pay a fine for cattle and a goat for the violation.

Mugabe died in 2019 in a hospital in Singapore at the age of 95. His family decided on a private burial in Kutama in Zvimba district – about 90km (55 miles) west of the capital Harare – after weeks of argument with the government.

Patrick Zhuwao, the late president’s niece, told South Africa’s national broadcaster SABC on Thursday that Mugabe was buried according to his wish and that everything was above board.

He said there was no dispute within the family and that the matter was beyond the chief’s jurisdiction.