In Zimbabwe, two men from Chiredzi District were last week busted after they allegedly smuggled a dead body into the country from Mozambique.
iHarare reports that Tsengai Shate (34) of Section 6, Triangle, and Jacob Mutanda (45) of Mapanza farm were arrested for smuggling a corpse through an illegal point at Chisuma along the border in Chipinge.
Masvingo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Kudakwashe Dhewa confirmed Shate and Mutanda’s arrest to The Sunday News.
According to the police report, on the 19th of February Shate received a message alerting him that his wife who was staying in Mozambique had died.
Shate informed Mutanda and other relatives who agreed on repatriating the body through the illegal crossing point.
After devising a plan, on the 21st of February at around 2 pm, the relatives went to Mozambique to collect the body using a Toyota Land cruiser.
The duo was only busted in Chiredzi after they sought to put the corpse in the mortuary and sold themselves out whilst narrating how they repatriated the body from Mozambique.
“On 21 February at around 2pm the relatives went to Mozambique to collect the body using a Toyota Land cruiser. In Chiredzi the duo sought to put the corpse in the mortuary and it was in narrating their story that it was discovered that they had illegally repatriated the body,” said Inspector Dhewa.
The duo is currently detained in police custody facing charges of violating laws of repatriation of bodies
This comes barely a month after, villagers from Nyanga were also arrested after they allegedly floated a coffin with a dead body across a river in Nyanga.
Zimbabweans from Nyamaropa, Nyanga, and Mozambicans are alleged to have cooperated and floated the dead body of a local man who died in a motorcycle accident in Mozambique.
Following the surge in Covid-19 cases, the government of Zimbabwe imposed restrictions on the movement of dead bodies. The government imposed strict restrictions on the repatriation of dead bodies and prohibited the movement of dead bodies from one city to the next for burial in order to curb the spread of Covid-19.
