Vincent Gono

Senior Reporter

AT a time when people were mourning their loved ones who perished in a Megalink bus accident, a heartless Harare man saw a big opportunity to make money and stole an identity document that he used to claim a dead body in an effort to get US$710 that was given by the State and the bus company to help bury the victims, police have confirmed.

The man, whose identity is still shrouded in mystery, is said to have stolen an identity document belonging to Allen Mapuranga that he used to claim the body of Anna Kadzere (27) alleging that she was his sister, got the US$200 that was given by the State and another US$510 that was provided as compensation by Megalink Bus Company after a fatal road accident that occurred at 92-km peg along Beitbridge-Masvingo road en route to Harare from South Africa that claimed 21 lives before he disappeared.

Police spokesman for Masvingo province, Inspector Tinaye Matake, confirmed opening a fraud docket saying a manhunt for the man whose identity was unknown had been launched.

Having stolen an identity document, Inspector Matake said, the man went on to claim the body that he dumped at Nyaradzo funeral parlour in Harare and went away with the money that was supposed to be used for funeral expenses on the pretext that he wanted to use his own vehicle to ferry the body for burial.

“We have launched a manhunt for a man who stole an identity document that he used to claim a female accident victim’s body and was given US$200 by the State and an additional US$510 by Megalink Bus Company for funeral expenses. The man claimed the body and left it at Nyaradzo funeral parlour in Harare on the pretext that he was going to get a car to collect it for burial and he disappeared,’’ said Insp Matake.

He said the offence only came to light recently when the husband — Blessing Machingambi of Glen View in Harare — read in the newspaper that his wife who had gone to South Africa was one of the accident victims.

The husband according to Inspector Matake, said his wife had prior to the accident, phoned him informing him that they were in the country on their way from South Africa but surprisingly she did not get home within the expected days prompting the husband to look for her.

All hell broke loose when he got to Masvingo and was told that his wife was one of the accident victims and that her body had already been collected by someone who claimed to be his brother. The man could not, however, recognise the name of the person said to be the brother to his wife and urged police to cross-check the identity.

The police, however, were quick to check the name against the identity document number and arrested Mapuranga who confirmed that it was indeed his identity document that was used in the commission of the crime.

The husband and the woman’s relatives later claimed the body from Nyaradzo where it was lying uncollected and took it for burial some days ago.