Body lies in mortuary as families feud

THE body of a 30-year-old woman has been stuck at the Driefontein Mission Hospital mortuary for three months as families heckle over her lobola payment.

Mary Nyasha Masawi died some time in December last year at Driefontein Mission Hospital. However, no one has claimed her body as the in-laws and her family have failed to agree on the payment of the outstanding bride price as well as the hospital and mortuary fees.

"Her husband (name withheld) never paid the bride price. All he did was to send me a letter back in 2009 in which he informed me that he was the one who had taken my daughter, " Mary's aggrieved father Frederick Jackson Masawi told NewsDay this week.

NewsDay is in possession of a copy of the letter dated November 22, 2009, which gives the name of the "husband", who is from Mhondoro-Ngezi, as the one who took Mary as his wife.

"The letter was accompanied by a $5 note which he said was for tsvakirai kuno (token of announcing the person with the bride). But that was it, he never came back to us until we received news that she was very sick," Masawi said.

Masawi is bitter that Mary's husband never bothered to come and inform his family that she was unwell.

His wife's younger sister reported that Mary was also being neglected and offered to take her to her rural home.

"Her situation was very bad and she was taken to Driefontein Mission Hospital in Mvuma. She passed on after a few days," said Masawi.

He claimed that his in-laws then sent an emissary to inform them about the death. "I consulted with elders and some relatives and was advised that I should ask the in-laws to at least settle part of the bride price that they owed us," he said.

Masawi said he even told them that if they failed to come up with the money, they should communicate since there were other alternatives.

"But they never came back and I have not heard from them. Now I just want my daughter to be laid to rest," he said.

Masawi appealed for assistance, adding he did not have money to settle the hospital bills and mortuary fees.

"What is critical for me now is to ensure my daughter is given a decent burial. I do not want her to be given a pauper's burial while I am still alive," he said.

Efforts to trace the husband were fruitless as the company he allegedly worked for indicated that they had never had an employee with such a name.