Mwenezi poison victims laid to rest

From George Maponga in Masvingo
Five Mwenezi family members who died last week after eating food mixed with fresh milk suspected to have been laced with poison were buried on Sunday at Village 7 in Masangula, with the father of two of the deceased siblings demanding 40 head of cattle as compensation.

Mwenezi district administrator Ms Rosemary Chingwe was forced to mediate and stop matters from spiralling out of control after Mr Peter Baloyi, the father of Sylivia (7) and Beauty (4) threatened to block their burial demanding 20 beasts for each of his late daughters upfront.

Mr Baloyi wanted his polygamist brother-in-law Musuteri Dhambarara (59) to compensate him as he held him responsible for causing his daughters death.

The Baloyi sisters, together with Mr Baloyi’s aunt Esther Kunguli (70) and nephews Takudzwa (4) and Tafadzwa (7) Pote died last Tuesday after eating vegetables mixed with fresh milk believed to have been laced with an unknown herbicide.

The five ate the food together with Dhambarara’s third wife Ms Marita Zavirima and another relative but the pair survived after they vomited. This was after Dhambarara had created a home-made concoction to induce vomiting upon noticing that everyone was wriggling with stomach pain after eating the sadza and dried vegetables mixed with fresh milk that had been served for supper at Ms Zavirima’s house.

A tense atmosphere engulfed the Baloyi homestead during the burial of the five.

Mr Baloyi wanted Dhambara to compensate him, but the latter was nowhere to be found as he skipped the funeral for unknown reasons.

Burial proceedings only ended at around 6pm after the DA, Ms Chingwe and other officials from her office made it clear that they wanted the remains of the deceased to be interred that day without fail.

Ms Chingwe yesterday confirmed the burial finally took place after initial delays because of haggling over compensation.

She said her office mobilised material and financial resources to assist in the burial of the five.

“We managed to raise $300 that we used to buy five simple coffins for the Mwenezi poison victims. We had to intervene to break the ice between family members who were haggling over the issue of compensation. We made it a point that burial proceedings were supposed to proceed without fail and then family differences were to be resolved later,’’ she said.

Ms Chingwe said the deceased were buried in three graves at Mr Baloyi’s homestead with the four juveniles sharing two graves while Kunguli was buried in her own grave.

She paid tribute to companies and business people in Chiredzi and Mwenezi who chipped in during the funeral of the poison victims.

Mr Baloyi said that Dhambarara would never know peace until he pays him compensation for the loss of his daughters.

“He (Dhambarara) was not at the funeral, but I made it known that where ever he is, I want 20 beasts for each of my daughters as compensation. He will never find any peace if he fails to compensate,’’ he declared.

Mr Baloyi alleged that Dhambarara was the one who bought the herbicide that was allegedly used by his first wife Makanani Lisimati (61) to poison his daughters and other relatives.

Dhambarara’s first wife has not been seen from the time Mr Baloyi’s two daughters and three other relatives died and her whereabouts remain unknown.

It is also not clear why Dhambarara skipped the burial of his relatives.

Police yesterday said that they were still waiting for results for the post-mortem conducted on the five bodies at Chiredzi District Hospital, while no arrests have been made as investigations were ongoing.

On the day tragedy struck, Dhambarara together with his youngest wife left their home in Village 6 in Masangula to go to Village 7 where his first wife Lisimati and the second one, Tikomunyi Mapanyi (32) stayed.

Ms Zavirima took with her a two-litre container where she wanted to put some fresh milk after the milking of cows by her husband in Village 7.

Upon arrival, Ms Zavirima allegedly left her container with the first wife, while she proceeded to the food-for-work programme in the area.

When she returned, she collected the milk shared by the first wife among all the three wives.

She left to fetch water at a nearby well leaving behind the first wife to share the milk.

After a few minutes, the first wife allegedly followed Ms Zavirima to the well with the latter’s share of the milk.

Ms Zavirima later on returned to her home in Village 6 where she prepared supper made of sadza and dried vegetables which she mixed with fresh milk since she did not have cooking oil.

Everyone who ate the food started complaining of severe stomach pains resulting in the death of five people, while two others survived after they managed to vomit. Dhambarara, who refused to eat the meal gave remains of the poisoned food to dogs at the homestead and they all died within minutes.