RUKODZI PARISH, CLOSED TWO YEARS AGO FOR BEING AN ‘ILLEGAL CEMETERY’, IS BACK IN BUSINESS

Arron Nyamayaro

TWO years after businessman John Rukodzi was arrested and dragged to court for allegedly operating an illegal cemetery along Seke Road opposite the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, the cemetery has been reopened and officials are accepting payments for burial services.

Those who are running the cemetery have erected a sign along Seke Road to advise clients that they are back in business.

The owners of Rukodzi Parish Cemetery are now using a rural address for their business, which they say is now based at Murape School in the Seke rural area.

They have changed the named from Rukodzi Parish to Rukodzi Perish.

Two years ago, the cemetery’s owners clashed with the owners of Zororo Memorial Park.

The row started when Rukodzi Parish Cemetery sold more than 50 graves, at US$80 each, and the case spilled into the courts.

Rukodzi was arrested and appeared in court facing allegations of selling more than 50 graves at US$80 each on State land and aallegedly using burial orders and issuing receipts in the name of a legitimate cemetery company, Zororo Memorial Park.

Sources said Rukodzi once applied for land from the Harare City Council, which is near Zororo Cemetery but then, without approval, moved into the nearby State land where he was operating his cemetery.

In February that year, the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works wrote to police in Waterfalls advising them that they had not allocated any land for cemetery purposes to Rukodzi at either Retreat and Eyestone Farms.

“Could you please be advised that the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works did not allocate any land for cemetery purposes to Rukodzi Parish Pvt Ltd at the above properties. Be guided accordingly,” read the letter dated February 7, 2023, from the Ministry.

Several people had already been buried at the cemetery.

Yesterday, an H-Metro team disguised itself as a family which was looking for a grave to bury one of its relatives.

We contacted a Rukudzo Parish employee who told us they charged US$60 for adults while a small grave for children cost US$30.

“If you want to buy a grave let us meet tomorrow along Seke Road near Zororo Cemetery for payment and we will show you the grave.

“When booking, use Murape School Box 200 Seke please.”Handiti murikuda remunhu mukuru here, ngatisangane ipapo pedo nepana Delpot Road,” he said.

It could not be established yesterday if Rukudzo Parish has now been given the greenlight to operate its private cemetery or this was still being done illegally on State land.However, the revelations two years ago that Rukodzi had set up an unlawful cemetery in Harare, where he had the temerity to bury more than 50 bodies from unsuspecting bereaved families, torched a storm.

It raised several questions regarding how people were valuing the sanctity of life, respect for the dead and the extent to which one can go to break the law for self-serving purposes.

Questions that came to the fore were not only legal issues but traditional issues as to why a Zimbabwean could disregard traditional beliefs and customs of decent burial given that in our belief system, particularly respect for the dead, is entrenched in our African culture and is heavily revered.

The Ministry of Local Government and Public Works wrote a letter to the police directing them to stop Rukodzi from burying people at the area.

“Could you please be advised that the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works did not allocate any land for cemetery purposes to Rukodzi Parish Pvt Ltd at the above properties. Be guided accordingly,” reads the letter dated February 7, 2023, from the Ministry.

A traditionalist, Mr Hazvirevi Makwiramiti, said this was an abomination.

“People should uphold the long held principle of descent burial. What he was doing was an abomination as it defiled our country by upsetting the spirits of the departed by failing to provide decent burial.

“He should appear before a traditional leaders’ court to be handled differently with criminal courts where he should face a heavy fine,” he said.

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