Scores of Zimbabweans attend miners' memorial service

Scores of Zimbabweans resident in South Africa on Wednesday braved a very chilli Johannesburg weather coupled with a heavy downpour to attend a memorial service for 25 Zimbabweans who were retrieved dead from a Roodepoort disused mine last week.

The memorial service of the 25 retrieved Zimbabweans and probable hundreds more left decomposing underground after rescue operations were called of last week was held at the recently refurbished Christ The King Roman Catholic Church at the corner of Nugget and Smit Streets Doornfontein down town Johannesburg. The 25 Zimbabweans most of them illegally resident in South Africa died of suspected gas inhalation thousands of meters underground a disused South African mine illegally digging for gold.

The 25 bodies will be repatriated for burial in various districts of Zimbabwe on Saturday leaving Johannesburg on Friday night. A Johannesburg funeral parlour, Kings and Queens will provide the burial services for all the 25 bodies. The parlour offered to provide coffins and all services for the deceased and left families and relatives with a task to raise R53 000 required for subsidiesed transportation of the bodies to Zimbabwe.

The bodies most of which are in near advanced stage of decomposition took over five days to be all brought to surface by the informal rescue teams of mostly relatives and friends or fellow miners braving the risks underground to bring their loved ones to surface. The South African government's rescue teams out rightly refused to go underground fearing the risk of also suffocating in the gases.

According to a fellow miner who lost two brothers a cousin and couple of friends under ground, only those who died trying to make their way out of the shafts and were close to the exit were retrieve but scores if not hundreds more died deep down the shafts and are unreachable. The surviving miner who refused to be identified for fear of being victimised by relatives who are still missing their loved ones and also in fear of the police said that those who were brought to surface were the lucky ones who had brave friends and relatives who had the guts to go down and search for their bodies amongst many others in the shafts.

"The bodies you see are just a small fraction of what is underground. Some people don't know that their relatives are underground in that mine they just believe that they are working in Johannesburg but don't know that they are here. Its bad," he said urging people back in Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Mozambique to confirm the where about of all their relatives in Johannesburg. Speaking at the memorial service Zimbabwe's consul-general in Johannesburg George Magwenzi praised Zimbabweans for showing a spirit of oneness and unity at this very trying time for the nation. Speaking in sympathy with the families of the deceased, Mangwezi said that its bad that these Zimbabwean gallant children died in that circumstance trying to make a living because they could not get employment back home.

Mangwenzi added that his consulate has been helping the families of the deceased sort out identity and repatriation documents for the deceased and also travel documents for family members wishing to travel home for the burials. He thanked all Zimbabweans and other stake holders who took their time to rush to the mine and assist with the rescue operation and also thanked all those who responded towards the call to donate towards the disaster. He assured mourners that he was in constant contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs back home and a decision on what assistance government will offer the families of the deceased will be announced in due course.

The 25 bodies will leave Johannesburg on Friday evening and a mass service will be held at the same venue where thousands of Zimbabweans are expected to gather to bid farewell to their fellow countrymen. Various churches, NGOs, political parties and other stakeholders have already confirmed that they will attend the sending off services. A very sombre atmosphere filled the church on Wednesday evening of which a more sombre atmosphere is expected to prevail on Friday as all the 25 coffins will be laid in front of the mourners and bodies will be viewed en mass before departure.