GMB blast victims buried

THE six Grain Marketing Board workers, who perished in an explosion that rocked its Lion’s Den depot three weeks ago, were finally buried yesterday.

Burial was delayed by over two weeks as there were difficulties in positively identifying the burnt bodies.

Those buried include Peter Marewa, Chinhoyi Stars player Craig “Thazza” Nyasoro, Collin Gutse, Josephine Moyo, Foster Mupambwa and Blessing Majasi.

Government took the opportunity to explain to the community the reasons for the delay in burying the deceased.

Makonde Senator Prisca Mupfumira said authorities needed to ascertain the true identities of the bodies before giving the green light for burial.

This follows earlier clashes before the burial of one of the victims with another family accusing the other of wanting to bury the wrong body.

“We would like to pass our condolences to the bereaved families, the people of Murereka and Makonde district as a whole. We would like to thank the community for working together in this trying time,” said Senator Mupfumira.

“It is not easy to deal with a tragedy of this magnitude and given that there has been long period waiting to bury the bodies. This was necessitated by the need to positively identify the bodies. It was necessary to ensure that people bury the right bodies. That is why it took time before we could bury the six bodies”

She said the six died in the line of duty working for their country.

Turning to GMB, she said the parastatal should learn from the tragedy to put in place preventive measures through holistically looking at its structures and systems.

“As GMB, you should put in place measures to ensure that we do not have similar accidents in future. Refurbishment of silos should be done holistically not in bits and pieces because we do not know where the next explosion is going to occur,” she said.