After exhuming their deceased mother's body at the Madombidzha Cemetery to remove muti and other strange things from the coffin last Wednesday, children of the late Mrs Maria Munonoka (58) this week opened a charge against a close relative, whom they are accusing of committing an offense of abusing the lifeless body of their mother before it could be laid to rest.

A few days after the deceased was buried at the Madombidzha cemetery on April 15 this year, her only daughter Patricia (24), sparked a controversy when she stated that a traditional healer, who is a close relative, had smeared muti on the deceased’s body, had pricked needles into both sides of her late mother's body, put a stick on her head and forced her mother's fingers closed around the knife as if she was holding it.

During that process, Patricia claimed that her mother's tongue was also cut off, before a container with an unknown substance was left in the coffin. "All this happened in my view, but I was out of my mind. I had no idea to stop her or to alert other people at the funeral. I revealed everything when I came back to my senses after the burial," she said.

Together with her brothers, Patricia made an application at the Tshilwavhusiku magistrate to exhume her mother's body in order to remove the strange things put in her mother's coffin, but it was turned down. However, she went to the Tshiozwi Territorial Council and the Makhado Municpality, who approved it. Without an environmental health officer and a coroner being present, the deceased’s children, with the support of members of the community, exhumed the body.

The coffin was opened at a local funeral undertaker in the presence of the deceased’s children and certain members of the community. A knife, stick and a container with an unknown substance were discovered in the coffin. The needles were also found in the ribs of the deceased, but they were not removed, because the body had already started to decompose.

The eldest son of the deceased, Mr Lawrence Munonoka, who works at Africa Hardware at Makhado, said that his mother's mouth was not opened to check if the tongue had been removed. "We decided to open a case because my mother's body had been abused. I mean it was treated in a dishonorable manner, so we want the law to take its course," he said.

After examining and removing the strange things from the deceased coffin, the body was reburied at the same cemetery.

Mr Munonoka said that, together with his mother's children, they are delighted that they have removed strange things from their mother's coffin, but said that their safety is still hanging in the balance, since the traditional healer has not yet been arrested and is still at Madombidzha. "We are no longer looking eye to eye, and this is very bad," he said.

A community representative, Mr Solomon Nndwakhulu Mmbooi, said that the strange things removed from the deceased coffin were shown to people during a gathering held at the headman's kraal.

"At the Tshilwavhusiku police station, we told the police that we wanted to open a charge of violation of a corpse, but they refused, claiming that such a charge does not exist. The station commissioner, Supt Shirinda, called a local prosecutor to confirm whether such a charge existed or not. The prosecutor proved the police wrong, and we agreed that such an act exists," he claimed.

Mmbooi said that members of the community are planning to stage a march to condemn what has happened and to make the police do their job up to the community satisfactory. Supt Shirinda confirmed that there was a misunderstanding in the formulation of a charge before it could be opened on Monday at his station. "This is a crucial case; we have not yet arrested a person as we are still going to collect information from all the witnesses before we take this case for a decision to the Director of Public Prosecutions," he said.

The deceased died after a two-day illness in April this year. If the DPP decides in favour of the community, Mmbooi said that chances are good that the body can be exhumed by the state to check if the deceased tongue had also been removed.