News / Regional
Mass grave at a Zimbabwe Police post
27 Jan 2012 at 06:45hrs | Views
POLICE have discovered graves at Ntabazinduna Police Training Depot and efforts now being made to locate relatives of the deceased.
Addressing Governor for Matabeleland North Thokozile Mathuthu, Police Commissioner-General, Augustine Chihuri, Chief Neville Ndondo and acting Chief Ndiweni, Vincent Mbayiwa, the depot assistant commandant Superintendent Ben Chabata said two sites with graves have been identified at the depot.
The police have since fenced off the graves and planted trees around the sites and Supt Chabata said this was their way of respecting culture.
The fence is also meant to protect the graves so that recruits do not tamper with them.
The police took over the depot from the Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment in 2004.
"After the discovery of the graves and in an effort to build relations with the local population, we invited the local chief to come and view the places after we had fenced them off.
"It is our wish as the ZRP to identify who lies in these graves and resources permitting we can put name tags on the graves," said Supt Chabata.
He said the other problem that they were facing was that they do not know the number of graves at the two cites.
Supt Chabata said representatives from the local chief had visited the depot although up to now no way forward had been found.
The planting of trees at the sites, he said, was meant to provide a shed for the graves.
Acting Chief Ndiweni, Mr Mbayiwa, in concurrence with Governor Mathuthu and Chief Ndondo said they would call for a meeting that would be attended by the local traditional leadership to try and help identify those buried there.
Acting Chief Ndiweni said they were grateful that the police command at the depot had seen it fit to fence off the sites as this shows that they value culture.
Governor Mathuthu, who appeared greatly concerned, asked the district administrator Mrs Ennety Sithole to co-ordinate the meeting to find a solution to the issue of the identity of the graves.
She also expressed gratitude to the police gesture of fencing off sites, saying this showed respect for other people's culture.
Governor Mathuthu said if one does not remember the dead, then they were lost and said there was a need to work towards identifying who lay in the graves.
Addressing Governor for Matabeleland North Thokozile Mathuthu, Police Commissioner-General, Augustine Chihuri, Chief Neville Ndondo and acting Chief Ndiweni, Vincent Mbayiwa, the depot assistant commandant Superintendent Ben Chabata said two sites with graves have been identified at the depot.
The police have since fenced off the graves and planted trees around the sites and Supt Chabata said this was their way of respecting culture.
The fence is also meant to protect the graves so that recruits do not tamper with them.
The police took over the depot from the Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment in 2004.
"After the discovery of the graves and in an effort to build relations with the local population, we invited the local chief to come and view the places after we had fenced them off.
"It is our wish as the ZRP to identify who lies in these graves and resources permitting we can put name tags on the graves," said Supt Chabata.
He said the other problem that they were facing was that they do not know the number of graves at the two cites.
Supt Chabata said representatives from the local chief had visited the depot although up to now no way forward had been found.
The planting of trees at the sites, he said, was meant to provide a shed for the graves.
Acting Chief Ndiweni, Mr Mbayiwa, in concurrence with Governor Mathuthu and Chief Ndondo said they would call for a meeting that would be attended by the local traditional leadership to try and help identify those buried there.
Acting Chief Ndiweni said they were grateful that the police command at the depot had seen it fit to fence off the sites as this shows that they value culture.
Governor Mathuthu, who appeared greatly concerned, asked the district administrator Mrs Ennety Sithole to co-ordinate the meeting to find a solution to the issue of the identity of the graves.
She also expressed gratitude to the police gesture of fencing off sites, saying this showed respect for other people's culture.
Governor Mathuthu said if one does not remember the dead, then they were lost and said there was a need to work towards identifying who lay in the graves.
Source - chronicle
