Private Cemetery Dug Up 78 Graves Without Permission
The company was granted permission to remove and rebury 69 graves for the development of roads and car parks.
Private Cemetery Dug Up 78 Graves Without Permission
Restland Memorial Park director Edwin Munyaradzi Muronzi, who spent the weekend in remand prison charged with violating graves and corpses, has been granted bail.
Muronzi initially appeared in court on Saturday. He was granted US$200 bail.
Allegations are that in 2015, Muronzi acquired a piece of land measuring 3.6 hectares in Rainham under the Zvimba Rural District council to use as a private cemetery.
Upon occupation of the land, under Restland Cemetery, he realised that the area had already been used as a cemetery by the locals but not known to the Zvimba Rural District Council.
The company, through Muronzi, then applied for removal of these graves for reburial to pave way for the new developments.
In 2018, the company was granted permission to remove and rebury 69 graves for the development of roads and car parks in the new cemetery.
It is during these reburials when Muronzi allegedly employed some workers who were removing the bones from the graves for reburial at a place within the cemetery.
Private Cemetery Dug Up 78 Graves Without Permission
On December 5, police officers from ZRP Mabelreign received information to the effect that Muronzi had violated graves and corpses at his private cemetery.
They went to investigate. Upon arrival at the cemetery, they found out that, indeed, there was information related to recovered human remains when new graves were being dug.
Muronzi was then called to his cemetery and he brought some paperwork which showed that in 2018 he applied for the reburial of 69 graves for the purposes of development of roads and car parks.
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However, it was found out that there were more than 78 graves which were reburied without the knowledge of authorities instead of the approved 69 graves.
Muronzi could not give a genuine reason as to why he had exceeded the number of graves which he had applied for in the first place, leading to his arrest.
