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A family from Gurajena Village under chief Nemangwe in Gokwe dumped the body of their daughter, at their in-laws’ homestead, demanding three cows for lobola before burial.
The incident, which has become the talk of the village, happened on Sunday night.
Tapiwa Mamombe died after a short illness and it is alleged that her husband Elliot Moyo refused to take her to the hospital for treatment.
The Mamombe family said their daughter would not be buried until the Moyo family attended to their demands.
A family member, Tafadzwa Moyo, said the family was shocked on Monday morning when they woke up to a corpse lying at their gate.
“These people do not have respect at all. How can they disrespect their daughter in the worst possible manner? If they want us to finish lobola payment, they should have approached us and we were not going to refuse to give them their dues.
“Dumping the corpse at our gate was uncalled for. Imagine our shock when we woke up to a coffin with a dead body in the morning. We were very shocked and up to now we are still failing to get over the shock,” said Tafadzwa.
He said the family reported the matter to Headman Mpasiri who ordered the bereaved family to ferry the corpse to their homestead.
Elijah Ncube who spoke for the Mamombe family said as a family they felt that their son-in-law deliberately refused to take Tapiwa to the hospital as he wanted her to die.
“Our daughter and Moyo had marital problems for a long time. At one point he actually chased her from their home saying he wanted a new wife. So we suspect that he didn’t take her to the hospital when she fell sick as he wanted her to die so that he can marry his new wife.
“What makes the matter even worse is that our son-in-law fled to South Africa when our daughter died. That’s an obvious sign that there was foul play involved in Tapiwa’s death. He is her husband, why run away instead of burying his wife,” he said.
Chief Nemangwe whose jurisdiction the area falls under confirmed the incident.
“We had an unusual incident in the area whereby a family dumped a dead body at their in-laws’ homestead. We are still trying to help these two families resolve the dispute so that the deceased can be laid to rest,” he said.
derick.khumalo