The Sunday News
Richard Muponde, Plumtree Correspondent
PLUMTREE District Hospital is stuck with five bodies, four of which are of one-day-old babies whose parents dumped them at the hospital.
Initially the bodies were 10 but five of them have since been collected by relatives leaving that of an adult male and the babies which have clocked a year in the mortuary. The bodies are now congesting the health institution’s mortuary which has an official carrying capacity of nine bodies.
Matabeleland South police spokesperson Inspector Philisani Ndebele appealed to members of the public who could have a missing relative to approach the institution to check on the bodies.
“Yes, I confirm that we have bodies at the mortuary some of which date back to February last year. We are now appealing for them to be given a pauper’s burial. There is also a body of a male adult which was brought in December and his name is Simphiwe Bhebhe. If his relatives are around we appeal to them to come and collect the body and accord him a decent burial,” said Insp Ndebele.
“Some of the people would be believed to be in South Africa or Botswana yet they would have died. We advise members of the public who miss their relatives to liaise with the police so that they identify some bodies which could be lying unclaimed in mortuaries due to failure to locate their relatives,” he said.
Plumtree acting district medical officer Dr Mbusi Salayi said they have since applied to the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare for the bodies to be accorded a paupers burial.
“We have applied to Social Welfare for the bodies to be accorded a pauper’s burial. We have four bodies of day-old babies and one of a male adult. We have not experienced much problems from the public in terms of claiming bodies but these have stayed long and need to be decently buried,” said Dr Salayi.
In Gwanda the body of a mentally ill man, whose head was decapitated in a suspected ritual murder is still stuck at Gwanda Provincial Hospital, nine months after he was killed. Mduna, as he was popularly known to the Colleen Bawn community, was allegedly killed by Honest Moyo (21) of Garanyemba, Gwanda District, in June last year who went on to decapitate him and cut off his testicles. -@richardmuponde
