The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Municipal Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has reportedly engaged the South African Government over its US$100 000 cremator it bought in South Africa but was impounded by that country’s tax authority.
The cremator was supposed to be installed at Luveve Cemetery which would have been the city’s first crematorium in the western areas.
The company that had won the tender to procure the machine has since folded, leaving the local authority with the task of trying to negotiate the release of the machine.
According to the latest council report, BCC had since engaged the SA Government with the hope of negotiating its eventual release.
“The issue of the cremator had been raised with the Covid 19 National Taskforce lead by the Vice President Kembo Mohadi. The South African Government had been engaged. The Chamber secretary (Mrs Sikhangele Zhou) also noted that the delivery of the cremator from South Africa was subject to legal procedures which could be clarified after the lockdown restrictions in both countries were relaxed to allow law firms and the courts to function,” reads the report.
The imported cremator was supposed to complement the only one in the city situated at West Park Cemetery, used mainly by the Hindu community.
The cremator was impounded while on transit to Zimbabwe by South Africa’s Revenue Services (Sars) supposedly over “inadequate import documentation.”
Council, then, said it had paid an initial deposit of $97 120 two years ago for the crematorium machine and at some point, resolved to raise about R120 000 to pay Sars in storage fees and secure the release of the machine which was still holed up in Durban.
