Residents in Hwange are worried over the increased number of graves without “Wankie Bricks” at Madumabisa cemetery.

The bricks renowned for their strength are being stolen in numbers amid suspicion that they are sold to home builders in the town and surrounding villages, New Zimbabwe reports.

Wankie Bricks are a special type of shiny light brownish building material manufactured by Hwange Colliery Company decades ago, with the inscription “Wankie Bricks” on its side.

It is strong and was used as a face brick or to build high-temperature ovens – which attracted a higher price than an ordinary one.

It is graves built using these quality bricks that are being targeted by thieves.

Residents told the publication that they were worried over the lack of respect for the dead displayed by the grave looters.

A Methodist Church in Madumabisa near the Kamandama disaster mine was also destroyed and the suspects looted the Wankie Bricks used to construct the place of worship.

Some relatives of those buried at the Madumabisa cemetery reportedly found tombstones thrown away from the graves, but with bricks missing.

Police and the Hwange Town Board officials were not available for comment.

Last April, there was another outcry in the nearby Dinde area, about 30km southeast of the town under Chief Nekatambe when Chinese miners from Beifa Investments, were accused of drilling holes in graves while prospecting for coal.

Police launched investigations after three men, one of them wearing an anti-riot police uniform, visited a community cemetery in Katambe village and dug three graves.

No arrests have been made.