A Gweru man was caught red handed, digging up a grave upon instructions from a sangoma.
Samson Mudzingwa of Mtapa, who works as a Gweru city council undertaker consulted a sangoma, who told him to select a grave of his choice at Mtapa cemetry and rob it.
Mudzingwa was supposed to retrieve an iron bar from the grave and use it for ritual purposes
The busted Mudzingwa insisted that he meant no harm by digging up the dead, neither did he want to desecrate the burial place but he just wanted to secure said iron bar as instructed by the sangoma.
He was arrested and appeared before the Gweru magistrate court, to answer to grave violation charges.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was remanded to custody to August 7.
The facts of the case state that Mudzingwa was instructed by a traditional healer to go to Mtapa Cemetry, select a grave of his choice and retrieve an iron bar which was going to be used for rituals.
It is not specified on what kind of ritual he sought to perform.
Mudzingwa was caught in the act by fellow municipal graver digger Elliott Mapfumbate who works at the same cemetery.
The incident is said to have happened on the 23rd July 2020, around 12 noon.
Mudzingwa was observed breaking the concrete grave slab, where the remains of one late Ncube are buried.
The matter was reported to the police, leading to his arrest.
Grave robbing is not a knew phenomenon in Zimbabwe, some daring syndicates are in the business of stealing high quality coffins and reselling them such that people conducting burials are now securing them with bricks, metal and concrete before shoveling in the soil to cover the coffins>chaosafrica