Online Reporter
Freeman Razemba in KARIBA
The Government has called on the public to assist in identifying six bodies from the 84 that have so far been recovered from Lake Kariba after a passenger vessel capsized last Tuesday.
Authorities have since intensified investigations to ascertain the causes of the incident.
In an interview on Monday, Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Marian Chombo confirmed that six bodies have so far not been identified.
“So far we have recorded 84 bodies recovered and 67 who survived and I would also want to appeal to the public that we have about six bodies which have not been identified,” she said.
“So we are calling upon the community to please come and help us identify these bodies.”
On Sunday, Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Advocate Felix Mhona met with Lake Kariba boat and ferry operators and visited the scene of the accident.
So far, preliminary investigations have begun pointing to a navigational error, possible overloading and failure to heed adverse weather warnings as factors that may have contributed to the tragedy.
The passenger ferry, owned by the Rural Infrastructure Development Authority (RIDA), capsized near Long Island on Lake Kariba.
President Mnangagwa has since declared the Kariba boat tragedy a state of disaster.
A technical report on the accident is expected to be presented to Cabinet on Tuesday, as investigators race to establish the circumstances that led to one of the worst maritime disasters on Lake Kariba.
