Mine accident victims: setting the record straight on funeral service

Dear Editor,

I am concerned at the inaccuracies and omissions in the reportage of the event surrounding the arrival of the remains of Zimbabwean miners who perished in South Africa recently, specifically the reception and funeral service in the morning of 8 March.

The newspaper accounts correctly indicated that the programme of speakers was curtailed in order to save time to allow the coffins of the young people to be transported to their distant home areas before the bodies deteriorated further. Indeed, Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) spoke on behalf of all the bereaved families who either accompanied deceased relatives all the way from South Africa or had come to Kings and Queens funeral parlour to receive the bodies. Inspector Moyo also read the list of contributors that had been compiled and thanked them on behalf of family members (who included himself). At this point Inspector Moyo thanked all who had helped in various ways and those who had come in solidarity with the families.

I am perturbed at the mix-up of what happened after Inspector Moyo finished his holistic presentation. It is important to indicate that there were no speeches inside the funeral parlour before or after the short service and prayers, apart from the composite message conveyed by Inspector Moyo. I was therefore amazed to read in one paper that a Ms. Nokuthula Mlambo was the next to "take the podium". There is also reference to statements by Ms. Molly Mpofu (ZANU-PF) and Ms. Thabitha Khumalo (MDC-T). This is either deliberate concoction or a mix-up with either interviews carried outside the funeral parlour or statements made subsequently at another forum. It would have been beneficial to the reporters to do more groundwork such as finding out what time people arrived long before the convoy from the South got to Bulawayo. Actually the first people got there shortly after 03.00am and started singing two hours before the bodies were offloaded and records cross-checked as they were lined on the floor (22 of them). If one were to be charitable one would say that the some reports were distorted in the process of editing, with the net result that to those who were there they sound fictitious or at best are simply badly massaged. For example the account does not mention that Dr. Dumiso Dabengwa of ZAPU was in the hall over an hour before the mentioned speakers arrived and Ms. Khumalo sat next to him through the service. Equally glaring is the omission of the effort by Pumula MP Hon. Albert Mhlanga to fill in for Master of Ceremonies (MC).

 In conclusion, an event such as this one deserves better attention to detail and more accurate juxtaposing of activities and statements, never mind wild claims of who contributed what, yet Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo read the full list supplied by the families and those accompanying the bodies. The reporter may also be musically deaf, but there was a lively and uniformed contingent of ZAPU that sang before and as the bodies were received (See the letter on Tuesday's Southern Eye, p.7).

Signed : Dr. Strike Mkandla, Alternate Secretary General of ZAPU, who was at the funeral parlour with the party members and officials who were the first to arrive from Matebeleland South, Matebeleland North, and Bulawayo.