Grave dug up, bones scattered

A FAMILY in Lushonkwe Village under Chief Mathe in Gwanda was shocked when they woke up to find one of their relatives' graves dug up and her bones scattered all over the place.Thembelihle Ncube, who died at the age of 25, seven years ago, was buried just outside the family homestead together with four other relatives.

Her mother Josephine Ndlovu and her 12-year-old son got the shock of their lives when they woke up to find her grave dug up, with white bones left near the grave on Thursday last week.

When  the Chronicle arrived at the homestead yesterday, villagers said the bones had been reburied with police assistance on Thursday this week.
Ndlovu said she was still shocked by the incident and had no idea why anyone would do such a thing.

"My daughter was buried here seven years ago and she left a son whom I've been staying with since her death. On Thursday last week, my grandson came running and told me to rush to the grave site and see what had happened," said Ndlovu.

"I was shocked to see my daughter's grave open. I looked around and saw white bones with no flesh scattered on the ground. I peeped inside and realised that the hole had been dug right up to the remains of her body."

Ndlovu said what shocked her most was that the soil that had been dug out was nowhere to be seen.

"I'm still puzzled up to now. The grave was dug up, but there was no soil on the surface. I called my neighbours and relatives who also alerted the community leadership and they were all shocked by the incident," she said.

Ndlovu said she was now living in fear since the incident, as she has been hearing strange noises outside her bedroom, making it difficult for her to sleep.

Lushongwe Ward 9 Councillor Mozitha Moyo told the Chronicle that it was not the first time to see graves being tampered with by unknown people in the community.

"A few months ago, another family in Lushonkwe woke up to find their relative's grave dug up, a week after they had buried him. These are very strange occurrences that are causing the whole community to panic," said Cllr Moyo.

"We have since decided to engage traditional healers and other spirit mediums, not necessarily to expose the culprits but to give us advise on how to deal with such bizarre incidents. We want this to come to an end because it's traumatising families and instilling  fear in the community,.

He said they would also provide a suggestion box where villagers would anonymously assist with information that might lead to a solution to this problem.
Zibonele Maseko, a pastor and one of Ndlovu's neighbours, said it was a clear act of witchcraft.

"It's clear that the people who did this were doing it for witchcraft purposes. No normal person could do such a thing. The fact that the soil that was dug up was nowhere to be seen proves that some evil spirit was at play.

"I suspect that they took all the remains of the body and probably left in a rush causing some of the bones to be left behind," said Maseko.

One of the village heads, Likhi Mathe concurred with Maseko, saying it was the work of evil people who move around eating people's flesh during the night.

He said it was important for the community to work closely with traditional healers to trap such people and stop them from traumatising villagers.

Matabeleland South provincial police spokesperson Inspector Philani Ndebele said he had not yet received a report.