Arron Nyamayaro
A CARTEL dug up scores of graves at a private cemetery in Harare in the past nine years and removed human remains which were then dumped at a dam close to the cemetery.
Once the human remains were removed from the graves, the old graves were recycled to appear as if they were new graves and they were sold to people who wanted to bury their beloved ones at the cemetery.
Tinashe Chiguma, 32, Moses Gwanya, 19, and Kudakwashe Humure, 21, who are members of the cartel, were arrested on Wednesday.
They implicated other suspects, who are still at large, and the graves were dug at Rainham Restland Memorial Park, along Kirkman Road, in Harare.
The digging of the graves and the removal of the human skeletons were carried out during the night.
H-Metro understands that each person was paid US$15 to remove the human skeletons from each grave while the grave diggers were paid US$20.
National police spokesperson, Commissioner Paul Nyathi, confirmed the arrest of the three men and promised to provide more details in due course.
“Police arrested three men in connection with violating graves and corpses at a private cemetery.
“Investigations are in progress and more details will be released in due course,” said Comm Nyathi.
Restland Memorial Park is a private cemetery located along Kirkman Road.
It is owned by a man who can only be identified as Muronzi.
H-Metro understands that Muronzi took over a piece of land which had been used as a cemetery in the past.
He employed some casual workers to clear off trees and shrubs and burials at the private cemetery started in the same year in 2015.
One of Murozvi’s employees was Life Chiguma, who is the son of Tinashe’s aunt, and is employed as manager at the cemetery.
Life employed Tinashe as a grave digger.
As they were clearing the trees and shrubs in 2015, the workers kept coming across some grave signs.
The cartel then started digging some graves and removing the human remains which were dumped in a small dam just behind the cemetery.
Sometime in February this year, Tinashe started experiencing nightmares in which some deceased people would appear to be choking him, stabbing him with a knife on the ribs or piercing him with some needles all over the body.
He claims these people wanted to know the whereabouts of their relatives.
Tinashe was advised to go and seek spiritual assistance from traditional healers or prophets.
Last month, Tinashe decided to resign from his job.
He went to his rural home in Devedzo, in Marondera, where he met his close relatives and advised them of the nightmares which were haunting him.
His relatives took him to ZRP Marondera Central where he narrated everything to the police.
This ultimately led to his arrest and the case was transferred to ZRP Dzivarasekwa.