MPANDAWANA – A 46-year-old man from Shadhaya village under Chief Gutu dug up his father’s grave and took away the dead man’s skeleton, the Gutu Magistrates’ Court heard last week.
Moses Zuva appeared in court accused of violating graves as defined in Section 110 of The Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act Chapter 9:23.
The section reads, “Any person who violates a grave in which human remains are situated, knowing that he or she is doing so or realising that there is a real risk or possibility that he or she may be doing so, shall be guilty of violating a grave and liable to a fine not exceeding level seven or imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or both.”
Zuva was remanded in custody to October 02 and ordered to be mentally examined by two doctors.
State facts are that on September 13, at around 10:00 hrs, Zuva went and desecrated the grave of his father who died sometime in 1990, took the skeleton and placed it in his bedroom.
He was seen by Paul Zuva Shadhaya who then alerted the police. The police went to his place and discovered the skeleton in his bedroom hut but the suspect resisted arrest.
When asked by magistrate Victor Mahamadi why he committed the offence, Zuva said he was only fulfilling what he had agreed with his late father before he died.
“I was just fulfilling our agreement. He asked me to take his skeleton and stay with it in my bedroom when he died,” said Zuva
Samuel Magobeya prosecuted.court
