There was drama at Bindura Cemetery on Tuesday after two bereaved families were engaged in a bitter wrangle after one of the families had buried a wrong corpse in a case of mistaken identity.
Mourners were left tounge-tied after a Bindura family which had mistakenly buried the wrong corpse was confronted by a Nyanga family whose late relative had been interred at Bindura cemetery.
The body of a Nyanga man, Robert Machemedze was exhumed yesterday after it had initially been mistaken to that of the late Taurai Batsirai, a Bindura man who, just like the former, died in a separate road accident.
Police spokesperson for Mashonaland Central Province Inspector Milton Mundembe confirmed the case.
He said Machemedze and Batsirai died in separate road accidents on May 9, and their bodies were taken for post-mortem in Harare and then kept in the mortuary at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital.
It is reported that Batsirai died in an accident in Harare, while Machemedze also succumbed from injuries sustained in a separate road accident along the Bindura-Shamva Highway.
According to the reports, Batsirai’s girlfriend Tariro Sithole wrongly identified the body of her deceased fiancee and this subsequently led to the burial of the wrong corpse.
It was after the Machemedze family had gone to collect their relative’s body that Isaac Machemedze, a family member expediently realised that the body shown to them did not belong to that of their relative.
Immediately, they filed a police report and after investigations were conducted, it was realised that their relative’s body had been mistakenly taken to Bindura for burial.
When they arrived at Bindura cemetery, their relative had already been buried. Machemedze’s body which was exhumed yesterday, was immediately taken to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and is awaiting reburial on a date to be advised.
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Additional Reporting: Zwnews
