/Chaos erupts as relatives bury dead thief with his loot | My Zimbabwe News

Chaos erupts as relatives bury dead thief with his loot | My Zimbabwe News

Three Mwenezi teachers are demanding for the exhumation of the remains of an alleged thief they believe stole their household property worth over R50 000 and was buried together with the property.

The three, Taurai Sithole, Caroline Mlambo and Lamedy Matavire from Dinhe Primary School under Chief Neshuro claim their houses were reduced to empty grounds by the late Tarisai Chihisani of Mashavele Village during school holidays in March this year and they managed to positively identify their property during Chihisani’s burial.

During Chihisani’s burial in May, the three claim, some mourners managed to positively identify some of the stolen blankets and utensils as part of Chihisani’s loot, when they were being placed in the grave, a ritual commonly performed in the area.

Upon seeing some of the teacher’s stolen property being placed in the grave, eyewitnesses allegedly tipped off Sithole, who is one of the teachers, who pursued the matter until he recovered some of their property from some villagers who had bought Chihisani’s loot.

Speaking to TellZim News, Sithole said he is now pushing for the exhumation of Chihisani’s remains so that they recover some of their property which he was buried together with.

“After being tipped off by some mourners at Chihisani’s burial that some of our property was buried together with him, I initiated some thorough investigations and managed to track down some of the people whom the deceased had sold some of the property to which included mattresses, pots, electrical gadgets and several other kitchen utensils.

“We lost property worth R50 000 and so far we have managed to recover only something worth around R15 000,” said Sithole.

Sithole also claimed that flowers that were put on Chihisani’s grave were also stolen from his kitchen, and he is now pushing for the matter to be heard at Chief Neshuro’s traditional court after the matter proved too heavy for the local headman.

“The blankets and several property which Chihisani was buried with are our belongings which he stole. The flowers which are currently decorating his grave were stolen from my kitchen and I bought that flower in Harare sometime last year.

“We are pushing for his exhumation because we need our belongings. We presented our case before Headman Madhongi but we failed to reach a common ground thrice with some of Chihisani family members and the matter is now due to be heard at Chief Neshuro’s Court,” said Sithole.

Chief Neshuro’s secretary Pinias Shoko confirmed the case and said the matter is due to be heard any time soon.

“We received the case from Sithole, whose property was stolen and is said to have been stolen by Chihisani. As a traditional court, we are specifically going to deal with the issue whereby someone was buried with the stolen property.

“On any other issues like that of the exhumation of the body and compensation issues, Sithole can approach the Magistrates Court for redress. The case is due to be heard at Chief Neshuro’s Court anytime soon,” said Shoko.

— TellZim

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