Zimbabwe: Bring us your dead

The following story is so true - it is horrific.

BULAWAYO, 17 February 2009 (IRIN) - Mass burials are being conducted in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, to empty hospital mortuaries of hundreds of unclaimed and decomposing bodies.

The morgues at the city's two main referral hospitals, Mpilo and the United Bulawayo, have fallen into disrepair, with broken refrigerators unable to maintain the required temperatures in the summer heat to prevent decomposition.

Mpilo's mortuary has a capacity of 30 corpses, but was storing 250, piled three high on gurneys, while other bodies were lying on the floor, and more arrive each day.

Zimbabwe's economic meltdown has prevented families from claiming bodies as funeral costs have become unaffordable.

A simple wooden casket is priced at between US$350 and US$400, a sum beyond the reach of nearly all Zimbabweans. Unemployment is calculated at 94 percent and more than half the population survives on donor food assistance.

The mortuary crisis has become so acute that on Valentine's Day - 14 February - the Bulawayo Residents Association (BURA), together with churches, businesses, funeral parlours and the Zimbabwe Prisons Service (ZPS), conducted a pauper's burial for 65 people whose bodies had languished in the city's morgues for over six months.

"We applied for pauper burial status from the Department of Social Welfare so that we could ease pressure on the hospital mortuaries, as bodies were rotting, and we received support from companies, churches and the prison authorities, who enabled us to go ahead with the burials," BURA chairman Winos Dube told IRIN at the mass funeral.

"The stench emanating from the hospital mortuaries was not good, and we hope families will claim bodies of their loved ones in future and give them decent burials," Dube said.

"The sad reality is that all this is a reflection of the economic situation in the country, where people disappear after the death of a relative because they cannot afford burial costs," he said.

"Everybody understands that people are struggling to survive, and this explains the high number of people needing pauper burials, but with the support of the other people we are working with on the current pauper burials we will continue to conduct the mass pauper burials."

Prisoners as pallbearers

The prisons department provided the manpower to carry the bodies from the morgues to the vehicles waiting to transport them to Bulawayo's Luveve cemetery, and then to the graves, dug by residents and members of church congregations.

Funeral parlours donated cash to purchase cardboard coffins, while the business community gave money for fuel and the hire of trucks and hearses.

"One of my uncles died over five months ago and has not been buried because all his children are in South Africa, and as a family we failed to locate them," said Thelma Sikhosana, 46, who attended the mass burial.

"Since we did not have any money to conduct the funeral we just left his body at the mortuary, and I just came here to see his final resting place," the visibly distraught woman told IRIN.

Pauper burials used to be something of rarity in Zimbabwe, when the once flourishing economy either allowed people to prepare for the rituals of death by investing in funeral policies, or contributions by relatives provided often lavish send-offs for the deceased.

Many of those interred in the mass burial were prisoners. In a report published late in 2008 by the Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of the Offender (ZACRO), it was alleged that in Zimbabwe's two largest prisons at least two inmates died each day from hunger or disease.

ZACRO said the squalid prison conditions in the country's 55 prisons - designed for 17,000 inmates and currently holding 35,000 - created an ideal environment for the spread of diseases, such as tuberculosis, while cash shortages prevented the purchase of antiretroviral drugs to treat prisoners living with HIV/AIDS.

ZACRO said in its report that the prison services did not have sufficient funds to buy food, let alone pay for burials. The social welfare department was responsible for prisoner burials, but had ceased this function as a result of funding shortages.

According to the World Health Organisation, average life expectancy in Zimbabwe has fallen from 60 years in 1990, to 37 years for men and 34 years for women at present.

Keeping Resthaven Going

Mail from Bruce Masson email brucema@mutare.matanuska.co.zw
Please respond to Bruce and not this email address.

We are really wanting to keep the Resthaven complex in Rusape going, and at present our occupancy rate is hovering around 60%. Obviously, we are wanting to raise this figure, and I was wondering whether you knew of anyone who would want to move to Resthaven. I know that it sounds crazy, but in these difficult economic times, there may be people who cannot afford the rents in Hre. We are charging US$7 per month per cottage - water is free, but ZESA/Telone has to be paid for.

We have a good doctor, and small private clinic, as well as dentist, vet etc. Although most supermarkets are basic, we have a new "dollar" shop which has opened and I think that this will go a long way to alleviating shopping blues in Rusape.

Please also spread the word! Thank you.

Please be warned of a domestic Gardener MAKESURE MUKAYI

Please be warned of a domestic Gardener MAKESURE MUKAYI ; ID No 42-161216 H 42, who is working the Harare suburbs as a domestic gardener.

Makesure immediately appears intelligent and well spoken and courteous. Once in employ he arranges for his wife SHUMIRAI and family to be accomodated on the property and theft starts once she arrives.
They seem to be organised and have plans for their looting and so far it appears to be money in any form. Once complaints originate of their theft they have contacts in the political section who descend on the employer and extort more money from the employer under the guise of unfair employment conditions, lack of sufficient time off and leave and failure to provide food / accommodation for the family. This can extend to racial and sexual offences on the part of the employer too.
Once the political flavour is introduced there is no stopping them and they connive with the labour people to press charges of 1st degree assault with firearm / deadly weapon which introduces untold problems for the defending employer.
Makesures wife shumirai has connections in Highlands Police station who will willingly think up charges to further complicate the issue.

Please be warned of these two individuals.
From Jim Levenderis

THE COST OF DYING!

About ten days ago, some friends of mine's mother died. She was a dear,
unselfish person and I looked after her at Fairways as her daughters live in Australia and Ireland respectively. She had requested that she be cremated as she felt that it would be cheaper and less fuss than having a burial.

Her body was taken to a well known (I think the only) Funeral Services company who told me that as the crematorium in Harare was no longer functioning, her body would have to be taken to Mutare for cremation and that this would cost US$4000. The family were obviously shocked at this amount and asked for a breakdown. It seems that the cost to drive the body to Mutare is charged at a rate of US$2,50/km. - a totally exhorbitant and unrealistic figure and when queried, we were told that that was the rate and they were not prepared to negotiate.

Yes, we could have driven the body ourselves to Mutare as other people do, but felt that this would be too traumatic under the circumstances and that Moira would not have wanted her daughter to have to undertake such a trip.

In the end, her daughter came from Ireland and the decision was made to bury Moira at the new Glen Forest Memorial Park which is very pleasant and at half the price!

What would it take to put the Harare Crematorium back into action?
Surely this would be a better option than having people being ripped off by this unscrupulous company who have the advantage of catching people when they are most vulnerable?
Trish Lillie

Comment:
When my father passed away 2 years ago we were placed in a similar position - however we were able to get assistance from the hindu community who were at that time allowing cremations at their crematorium at the Pioneer cemetary. We were the last non Hindu people allowed to have a cremation there as the municipality put a stop to it! it cost us very little money and the arrnagements were done quickly and with great compation.

We had an informal but dignified ceremony attended by some of his oldest friends.

I hope the photographs below will show what this was like. A sad but somewhat beautiful end.

D'ELIA LAMBERTO

IN MEMORIUM

D'ELIA LAMBERTO, (11th FEBRUARY 2005)

LOVED, ADORED AND UNFORGETTABLE HUSBAND OF SHERROL.

EVER IN MY HEART, THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS.

Elise Torrie (nee) Riley

Passed away after a brave fight with cancer, on 9th February 2009. Her ever enduring smile will always be shining down on us.

Family and friends please join us in celebrating the life of Liesal on Friday 13 February, 3pm at Nazareth House Chapel, 149 Enterprise Road, Harare.

Silence......

I have been silent for 12 days at least due to a power failure that took out my operating system. It took so long to put it back and get my programs up and running as we had power faiklures lasting from over 60 hours to over 30 hours at a time. hope we will stay up and running now.