Exhumation of feedom fighters remains complete

EXHUMATION of Zimbabwe’s freedom fighters bodies buried at Ardwell Odzi Mine is complete with 114 body bags retrieved from Merry Shaft, Mutare Museums confirmed.

Some of the body bags are believed to contain the remains of more than one body, which is likely to increase the number of bodies that have been retrieved so far.

Speaking to The Herald, director Mutare Museums Dr Paul Mupira said the exhumation process is complete and burial arrangements for the freedom fighters are underway.

“So far we have discovered 114 body bags though we cannot verify the total number of bodies since we realised that in some instances, one body bag had more than one body remains.

“For the past two months we had been working on the retrieval of these remains and we can confirm that at Merry Shaft we have retrieved all the body bags with human remains. Currently, we are in the process of identifying these bodies and sorting them so that they can be buried well — all body remains are in the two mortuaries at the site,” he said.

He said the remains would be re-buried at Marimba 6 graveyard next week, after the completion of the identification process.

Dr Mupira also said lack of proper identity records for the people buried in the shaft was a cause for concern.

“There is no proper identity records for the individuals buried in this shaft hence we shall seek spiritual and scientific identification procedures to be made in order to identify who they were. Evidence drawn from the artefacts retrieved shows that, both civilians who played ‘mujibha’ and ‘chimbwido’ roles together with the freedom fighters could have been buried in the shaft hence proper identification has to be done before burial,” said Dr Mupira.

“The preparations of the graves are at an advanced stage and now we are mobilising coffin materials with assistance from the Government.”

He called on Government to also chip in with financial assistance to give the heroes a befitting send-off.