There was high drama at the Beit Bridge border post last Friday, when a South African hearse driver dumped a dead body at the Port Health Section, after he had been told to take the corpse back for embalming. Under Zimbabwe’s health regulations, any corpse coming into the country for burial should be embalmed at the place of death. This is meant to ascertain cause of death and reduce the spread of diseases. The incident occurred at around 19:00 when the man arrived in the company of a Zimbabwean woman in her early 20s on their way to Bulawayo. The man had been hired to transport the body of the woman’s mother, who had died in Johannesburg. "After completing customs and immigration formalities, they proceeded to the Port Health Section for registration of death, where we asked them to produce relevant documents for the transportation of the corpse. “They failed to produce proof that the body had been embalmed, however, and we then directed them to return to South Africa and follow the proper procedures, prompting the South African driver to dump the corpse in a fit of rage and drive back to the South African side in his hearse,” said a Port Health official. The man, however, later collected the body, following intervention by Zimbabwean and South African police and border officials at the border post.