Family dumps body at pastor’s house

IN a case of friendship turned sour, a family dumped the body of their father at a pastor’s house in Burnside in Bulawayo on Friday and demanded that he meets funeral expenses since he allegedly caused his death.

Family members said they were livid that their father, Mr Cain Sibanda died of stress after he was allegedly tricked into surrendering the title deeds of his 10-roomed house in Bellevue as surety when his then friend, Pastor Tshakalisa Dube of End Time Messages wanted to secure a bank loan in 2012.

The two were best of friends but the relationship turned sour after the pastor allegedly failed to service his loan resulting in Mr Sibanda losing his house which was on a 1 200 square metre stand. Apparently Mr Sibanda and Pastor Dube had agreed on the deal without the knowledge of their families.

Mr Sibanda’s daughter, Ms Abigail Sibanda confirmed that the family had dumped the body at Pastor Dube’s house out of bitterness after they felt the man of cloth cheated their father until he was made homeless and died of stress.

“Dube took our family house title deeds to secure a loan in 2012 and failed to pay it back leading to the house being auctioned. Our family only came to know about it when the house was being advertised for sale.”

Ms Sibanda said the family later learnt that when her father agreed to help Pastor Dube it was on the pretext that the man of cloth would erect a new pre-cast wall as a “thank you” at their house.

“My father was 73 years old at the time and Mr Dube had promised to build us a pre-cast wall once the loan was approved. At that time my mother was in Botswana and my father did not tell her. She also came to know about the issue when the house was being auctioned,” she said.

Ms Sibanda said after the house was later auctioned Pastor Dube promised to build them another house but has also failed to honour the promise. However, she claimed Pastor Dube went on to build himself “a big house in Burnside and bought himself two top of the range vehicles”, further infuriating the Sibanda family.

“A senior politician intervened and told him to build us another house and he agreed. He built a cottage in Mahatshula and asked us to move in when there was no water and electricity. He has been changing goal posts but he has managed to build his own house and bought two cars,” said Ms Sibanda, struggling to hold back tears that had filled her eyes.

Mr Sibanda’s brother, Mr Mabika Sibanda said the family decided to take the body to Pastor Dube’s home since he was refusing to pay for the funeral expenses when “it was clear my brother died of stress he caused.”

“My brother died because of Dube, in fact ever since he lost the house, he has not been well. His wife also died because of stress in 2017. My brother would sometimes walk from Mahatshula to Bellevue and would sit outside his former house crying. This affected him and he ended up having a mental problem and was admitted to Ingutsheni Central Hospital,” he said.

Mr Sibanda said his brother wrote in his diary that the family should not trust Pastor Dube because he was not honouring promises. The diary which was shown to this publication was written: “UDube Litsotsi lingamlaleli”, meaning Dube is a trickster, don’t listen to him.

“We wanted him to cover the funeral expenses but he refused. He only brought a few groceries including nine loaves of bread. We wanted him to sign an affidavit acknowledging our demands but he refused so we had to dump the body at his house.”

When approached for comment Pastor Dube and his relatives declined to talk to the news crew.

Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube said police managed to solve the matter after summoning both parties to a meeting at Hillside Police Station on Friday.

“We managed to solve the matter,” said Insp Ncube.

Mr Sibanda was later in the day buried at Athlone Cemetery in the absence of the Dube family.