Community members of the rural village of Mapakoni and its surrounding areas in Ha-Manenzhe, under the Mutale municipality, are still reeling in shock, following the discovery of a human skull in a trench that was opened for a water project in the area.

According to Mr Ndivheni Khorommbi, a villager and a foreman at the water project which is sponsored by the municipality, the shocking discovery was made by one of the small children who were playing next to the trench shortly after midday last Friday. “We were about to go for lunch when the kids who were playing next to the trench, near their home, came and informed us that they had found what looked like a human skull. We then confirmed that there was a skull laying in the trench that was opened by a caterpillar some few hours before.

“The skull did not have the lower part, but still had many of the teeth. Some bones were also lying close to it,” explained Khorommbi.

The information was passed to the steering committee that is dealing with the water project, where they agreed that the local chief, Paul Nemapakoni, who was not in the village that day, had to be informed. The skull lay there, in the trench, until Sunday when police from the Masisi police station were informed, but they told Nemapakoni that the skull should be buried in the trench “as they suspect that it might be coming from an old grave.

However, Nemapakoni, who said his village was started in 1969, could not tell if there were old graves where the skull was found. “We will sit and discuss this in our meeting with the royal council and community members on Sunday, where we will decide what to do about the skull,” said Nemapakoni while confirming that the skull was still lying in the trench.

Police spokesperson Superintendent Ailwei Mushavhanamadi, from the Vhembe area office, said he was not aware of this news. “This is news to me, but I will make a follow-up and find out what is happening,” said Mushavhanamadi.

Members of the community told Mirror: “We doubt if this skull is from an old grave. We suspect that people from far away came and buried this person in our area. We do not think this person might be from our area as we do not have a record of ritual murder cases or a person who went missing and had never be found,” said some of the community members.

The discovery of this skull happened while the Vhembe district is making headlines about several cases of ritual murders. The hottest one is of Nyelisani Sidimela, who spent seven months at the George Mkhari hospital where her mouth was operated on after she had survived a ritual murder attack while her lover Maanda Sendedza was killed on the same day in a bush near her home, Shadani, late last year.