Body in a government car cause scare in Gwanda

A body of a deceased woman carried in an open government vehicle has caused a huge scare in Gwanda.

Information brought to the attention of Bulawayo24 News by a worried click of residents of the town indicates that on the night of 10 September 2014 a white government Mazda vehicle registration number not provided was spotted parked outside a known carpenter's workshop with the body of the deceased person lying at the back of the open vehicle. According to the witnesses the vehicle had previously been seen at the Old Jahunda Township being driven around carrying the body in search of a carpenter to make a coffin.

Contacted for comment the said carpenter Mr. Elliot Sibindi confirmed that on the evening of the 10th of September two men who identified themselves to him as Felix Magwiro and Fabien Mukuli of ZRP West Nicholson came to have a coffin urgently manufactured for them. According to Sibindi, the two men in the company of a woman wanted the coffin to be made urgently as they needed to travel to Zvimba overnight to bury the deceased. Initially the men did not indicate to him that they already had the body of the deceased in the vehicle with them. The carpenter took close to two hours manufacturing the coffin while the body lay exposed in the open at the back of the vehicle.

Sibindi claims that he was shocked when he finished making the coffin to find the body lying in the vehicle still wrapped in what looked like a hospital shrouding sheet. The body is sad to have been still tied on the feet with a plastic strapping resemblance of a hospital intra virus tube. Sibindi claims that when he asked the men why they were carrying the body in an open truck without a coffin the men claimed that a local funeral parlor Doves Funeral Services had released the body to them without a coffin after they had failed to raise the money for a coffin at Doves. An officer with Doves Funeral Services in Gwanda who would not be mentioned confirmed that the men had indeed approached their office seeking a quotation for their services. According to the official the men claimed they did not have enough money to meet their quotation and asked the parlor to remove the cost of a coffin and only provide other services as they were going to buy the coffin from elsewhere. The family is said to have left the parlor to go and get a coffin but shocked the parlour staff when they returned in less than 15 minutes with the body of the deceased without a coffin lying at the back of the vehicle. The family is said to have asked Doves to go ahead clean the body and embalm it while they went out to "collect" the coffin.

According to the official they could not continue to help after the failed to produce paper work for the body which was clear had just been collected from the hospital mortuary. The official indicated that the family claimed that the person with the burial order was not available. Asked by the parlour how they had collected the body from the hospital without the burial order, the family opted to leave telling the parlor that they were going to drive all the way to Zvimba overnight with the body in the vehicle and sort everything when they get to Zvimba. According to the official they tried to advise the family of the illegalities of travelling with a body in an open van without a coffin and proper paper work but the family insisted on travelling and left with the body.

The residents who brought the case to Bulawayo 24 complained bitterly on how the body could be driven around the townships in an open vehicle in the days when the whole world is working flat out to curb the spread of the Ebola virus. The World Health Organisation has proven and warned that the Ebola Virus spreads fastest through contact and exposure to a body of a deceased person who may have died of the virus.

"This is very scary, we are busy being alerted of the deadly Ebola Virus and how it is spread by dead bodies and here we are finding ourselves exposed as a town to a dead body whose cause of death we are not aware of and more so in a government vehicle by people who should be in the fore front in curbing the diseases.," said a resident who would preferred to remain anonymous.

Sibindi who manufactured the coffin claims to have immediately made a report to a the local councilor Mr. Dumisani Siziba who promised him that council was going to do something about the issue but three weeks later he still had not heard anything from the councilor nor the council's health department as per their promise. "I am very disappointed by our councilor because I notified him of the incident immediately as our city fathers but they took the matter very lightly. I expected them to take the issue up quickly as council and maybe notify the police to track the source of the body before it left town but they did nothing about it," said Sibindi. Contacted for comment, Mukuli refused to associate himself with the details around the body and how it was claimed from the hospital saying that he was only assisting a colleague at work who had lost a loved one. Magwiro who is reported to be a senior officer at the Zimbabwe Republic Police at West Nicholson could not be reached for comment. Staff at the Gwanda Hospital refused to give media a comment referring all questions to the Minister of Health and Child Care in Harare. However, the paper managed to establish from hospital staff that the rules at the hospital mortuary insist that no deceased body can be released from the hospital mortuary without a coffin or an air tray and without production of an official burial order collected from the Department of Registror of Deaths and Births. Indications from some staff at the hospital are vivid that the police officers may have used their authority to claim the body from the hospital mortuary without producing the burial order and with no coffin to put the body in.

Contacted for a comment the Vice Chairman of the Gwanda Residents Association Mr. Obert Nkomo confirmed that his association had indeed received a complaint from the residents about how Doves Funeral Services had been accused of dumping a body to a bereaved family. According to Nkomo, his association stopped following the matter after they had met with Doves and established that the funeral parlour did not dump the body with the family as alleged but the family which is not part of the residency of Gwanda was to blame for doing things outside regulations. "We did get the report and we were very worried how Doves who are a very senior partner to the people of Gwanda could have done anything like that. We then immediately approached Doves who explained everything to us and proved beyond doubt that they had done their best to assist the family but could not do anything further than what they did after the family failed to produce complete paper work for the body. In fact as an association we applaud Doves for their very professional conduct and appreciate all the efforts they have been doing for the people of Gwanda," said Nkomo.

"We are very sad when we see people from outside Gwanda come to our town and force our systems to practice corruption and try to leave a bad name for the town. We are indeed going to pursue the issue further and we have already sent a delegation to the hospital to try and figure out how these people going all the way to Zvimba managed to get the body out of the hospital without a coffin and proper paper work."

Mr. Nkomo was also quick to absolve the hospital for any major blame on the release of the body without a coffin claiming that the relationship between the hospital and residents of Gwanda has previously allowed the hospital to release bodies to poor families who may have failed to raise funds for a coffin. "We know that over the years the hospital has been helping our poor claim bodies from the hospital without a coffin but all these have always been done above board with the hospital authorities provided with supporting documents from the welfare offices or our association provided the bodies leave the hospital straight to the cemetery for burial and properly wrapped in blankets or other such things not to have bodies whisked away at night and driven around the township in full view of members of the public."

"I also agree with the concern raised by the residents about the Ebola scare. Suppose the body was indeed of an Ebola death and it was driven around town like that the whole of Gwanda could have been infected by the disease. What makes it even worse is that these people drove around in a government car and without any paper work to prove to anyone what could have been the cause of death of the person," Nkomo said.

Bulawayo24 is still pursuing the matter with the Ministry of Health officials on what could have transpired with the body and what corrective measures would be put in place in view of the Ebola fears raised by the residents.