Online Reporter
Farirai Machivenyika
President Mnangagwa has appointed Dr Innocent Zimbwa as the Acting Coroner-General with effect from last Tuesday, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi has said.
Minister Ziyambi said this in General Notice 661 of 2025 published in last week’s Government Gazette.
“It is hereby notified that His Excellency, the President has, in terms of Section 5(1) of the Coroner’s Office Act, as read with Section 28(b)(i) of the Interpretation Act, appointed Dr Innocent Zimbwa as the Acting Coroner-General with effect from April 22, 2025,” Minister Ziyambi said.
According to the preamble of the Coroner’s Office Act, the Office’s mandate is “to conduct independent and impartial investigations into unnatural deaths, deaths that occur in violent circumstances, sudden and suspicious circumstances in order to determine the circumstances of such deaths; to provide for the appointment and functions of the Coroner-General, Deputy Coroner-General and their staff.”
In terms of the Act, officers-in-charge of prisons, police stations, or medical institutions must keep records regarding such sudden deaths for proper investigations by the coroner.
Failure to keep the necessary records or tampering with the information, according to the Bill, will see those in charge of the institutions being jailed for a period of up to five years.
The law also criminalises refusal by medical practitioners to carry out post-mortems as directed by the coroner, an offence that attracts six months’ incarceration.
It states that custodial officers must keep medical records or any other relevant documents of the deceased for at least five years to allow investigations to flow unhindered.
The Act, which became operational last September, repealed the Inquests Act and amended sections of the Burial and Cremation Act and the Births and Deaths Registration Act.
Parliament passed the Coroner’s Office Act in 2019, and the law was gazetted as an Act in 2020 before becoming operational last year.
