Horror in the cemetery
...Teen, 3 others nabbed for violating graves
TSITSI CHIYANGWA
Four suspects including a 19 year-old have been arrested for violation of over 380 graves at Restland memorial park, digging up corpses and packing skeletons in sacks to pave way for new graves.
Restland Memorial Park is at the border of Harare’s Whitehouse area and Zvimba district.
The suspects, Edwin Muronzi, Tinashe Chiguma, Moses Gwanya and Kudakwashe Humure, were arrested after Chiguma reported the matter following spiritual attacks where he claimed the deceased were demanding to know the whereabouts of their relatives.
National police spokesperson, Commissioner Paul Nyathi, confirmed the incident saying the ZRP team and forensic science are in the process of identifying the tampered with remains while other suspects are on the run.
“Investigations revealed that Edwin Muronzi employed grave diggers at the cemetery including the suspects and others who are on the run and paid them between US$15 and US$20 per every grave,” Nyathi said.
The grave-diggers were working under the instructions of Muronzi.
“In the process, they would come up across human skeletal remains which they would pack in empty cement bags before wrapping them in clothes used during burial and disposing them in a trench or a dam behind the cemetery. They would also dispose of the traditional artifacts buried with the bodies.”
Muronzi would then sale the “new graves.”
Police investigations continue.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association leader George Kandiero says relatives of the deceased need to do rituals and ensure their departed relatives “rest in peace.”
