Masvingo runs out of burial space

development of new cemeteries after the country’s oldest town ran out of burial space.
All Masvingo five cemeteries, most of them opened soon after Independence, have almost filled up prompting council to seek alternative burial space in the peri-urban farm of Victoria Ranch.
Masvingo Mayor Alderman Femius Chakabuda yesterday confirmed the town has run out of burial space.
He said they had since written to government through Local Government, Rural and Urban Development ministry seeking permission to acquire two farms in the Victoria Ranch estate for development of cemeteries.
“We have applied for at least two farms from government in the Victoria Ranch estate to develop new cemeteries after we ran out of burial space in our existing cemeteries that are on the verge of filling up.
“We urgently need to develop new cemeteries before the shortage of burial space actually becomes a crisis,” said Mayor Chakabuda.
He added that his council was now waiting for an answer from government but said they hoped the state would accede to their request. Masvingo’s last cemetery opened at Mangwandi took it first bodies in the early 1990s but is almost close to filling up due to increasing deaths blamed on the HIV and Aids scourge and also a drastic population increase centred around a jump in rural to urban migration.
The country’s oldest town is now estimated at over 100 000 residents up from about 20 000 in 1984 and the city’s population continues to grow due to rural-urban migration.