Mahere demands Nehanda officials face arrest

Former Mt Pleasant MP Fadzayi Mahere has called for the arrest and prosecution of officials who certified the RIDA Mbuya Nehanda ferry as fit to operate, following the Lake Kariba disaster that has claimed at least 95 lives.

Mahere accused officials in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development who issued the vessel's fitness certificate of gross negligence, arguing that they should face culpable homicide charges.

The ferry capsized on August 11 while crossing Lake Kariba, becoming the country's deadliest maritime and public transport disaster in recent history. At least 77 survivors have so far been recorded, while rescue teams continue searching for missing passengers.

The vessel is currently being worked on at Musambakaruma Island as authorities seek to overturn it and continue recovery operations.

In a series of social media posts, Mahere questioned how the ferry was cleared to operate despite its condition.

"Giving this rickety old can a ‘fitness certificate' is negligence of the highest order. They're responsible for causing the death of at least 95 people. They must be charged with culpable homicide. Heads must roll, and those responsible must be jailed for this," she said.

Mahere said the tragedy was particularly painful because many of the passengers were travelling to rural Kariba carrying goods for resale as part of their livelihoods.

"One of the things that pains me the most about the Kariba Ferry disaster is that most of the people on the boat were travelling to rural Kariba, carrying goods for resale in their small businesses," she said.

She noted that many of the passengers were women travelling with children and said the disaster had disproportionately affected ordinary people dependent on the ferry for their livelihoods.

"A great number of them were women. Who doesn't know that all too familiar story of a mother carrying a baby on her back with another in hand going off to buy and sell goods to feed her family?" she said.

Mahere said the ferry was an essential transport link for communities around Lake Kariba and argued that residents had not been seeking government handouts, but reliable public services.

"This is a community that never asked for handouts or government grants. All they needed was a functional public transport system so that they could work and feed their families yet the Govt failed them," she said.

She accused the Government of failing to protect vulnerable communities that had limited transport alternatives.

"95 dead and counting. If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention. Their only crime was to be poor and to rely on the only mode of public transport available linking them from Kariba town to Kariba rural," Mahere said.

She described the victims as casualties of broader failures in public service delivery and governance.

"They are victims of a broken system," she said, accusing the Government of failing to provide basic services to ordinary citizens.

Mahere's comments come as search and recovery teams continue operations on Lake Kariba, while questions mount over the ferry's seaworthiness, regulatory inspections and the circumstances that allowed it to operate before the fatal voyage.