Cyclone Idai wounds slowly healing
. . . 279 missing persons to be declared legally dead
ALMOST five years after Cyclone Idai hit Chimanimani and Chipinge in March 2019 and swept away 279 people who remain missing to this day, the victims will soon be declared legally dead by the High Court sitting in Mutare in an unopposed class action.
A class action is a procedure that permits one or more plaintiffs to file and prosecute a lawsuit on behalf of a larger group.
In this case, the Attorney-General, Mrs Virginia Mabiza, is rolling out the process as part of her constitutional mandate to defend the public interest.
Those interviewed by The Manica Post expressed the pain they are still going through over the uncertainty of their relatives’ whereabouts and were quick to point out that they have concluded and accepted that their loved ones might be long gone.
Cyclone Idai hit Zimbabwe in March 2019, with Chimanimani being the hardest hit by the tropical storm.
A legal officer with the Attorney-General’s Office in Mutare, Mr Peter Garwe is handling the case and he said they are still waiting for the High Court to avail the date for the class action.
“We are waiting for the High Court to avail the date to declare the class action as per our application. I will advise you once that has been done,” said Mr Garwe.
Most of the relatives of those who went missing as a result of Cyclone Idai told The Manica Post that the class action is a necessary, but painful process to give some sort of conclusion to their agonising wait for their beloved relatives.
Mr Tatenda Mapungwana, who was just 14 when both his parents and all his three siblings were swept away from their Kopa Madhomeni residence to an unknown destination, said: “It is extremely painful but after five long years of waiting, I have concluded and accepted that my family is not coming back.
“Declaring them legally dead will assist in my recovery process. I was also struggling to access my parents’ death certificates to process their estates,” said Mr Mapungwana.
Mr Witness Matiza (37), whose wife and two children were swept away from Kopa Madhomeni said: “Imagine waking up to find your wife and children gone. That is a nightmare that I lived, my friend. Our home was always lively, with the children making their joyful noise, and now it’s just a cold, quiet house.
“I can only pray and hope that the pain will fade with time because the memories are still quite fresh. However, the class action is a good move because I no longer believe that my wife and children will come back.
“I plead with the authorities that once the class action is done, they need to ensure that mobile civil registry teams that usually move around do the same in processing the death certificates for our loved ones so that the process is easy for us,” said Mr Matiza.
Ms Tsitsi Dhinda, whose husband was swept away at Ngangu Township, never to be seen again, said the class action will assist her in securing assistance to raise the four children that she was left with.
“I was left with four children when disaster struck in March 2019. Back then, one of them was just nine-months-old. It is really difficult to prove that these children’s father was swept away by Cyclone Idai because there is no legally-binding document to prove that.
“With this class action, I may now be able to seek assistance since I am unemployed and their father was the breadwinner,” she said.
However, those interviewed were quick to say efforts to repatriate the remains of
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