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Patrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
A Bulawayo bound Doves Morgan Funeral Services bus dumped mourners in Gweru on Wednesday night allegedly because it was recalled to attend another funeral.
Policy holder Muchenesi Mapeture said the incident happened as his relatives were coming from burying his father Michael Mapeture in Chivhu.He said he was not aware that the deceased was also a policy holder with the same funeral parlour which resulted in accusations that  he was trying to defraud the parlour  through a double claim.

The two parties then reached consensus that on the other policy he would not be given money for food, but would be provided with transport.

“The bus came to Bulawayo and ferried mourners but on its way back, I was shocked when my relatives and friends said they had been dropped off in Gweru. I am taking it up with Doves,” he said.

Narrating the ordeal, one of Mapeture’s relatives Tafara Shoko who was dumped in Gweru said after the Wednesday burial they intended to sleep in Chivhu but the bus driver told them he was under instructions to take them back to Bulawayo that same day.

“We left Chivhu around 5PM and at around 7PM, we were in Gweru. Some mourners dropped off and the driver then drove the bus to a Doves branch and parked there,” said Shoko.

The driver is said to have told them that he had been instructed to drop them off in Gweru and proceed to another funeral wake.

Shoko said there was an impasse as they refused to disembark and the driver drove to Gweru Central Police Station where police advised him to drive to Bulawayo but he flatly refused.

Shoko said at around 11PM, the driver threatened to take them to Harare where he was supposed to ferry the other mourners.

“That is when we disembarked and the bus left us there,” he said.

Shoko said they were then forced to look for alternative transport since they had no money to book accommodation in Gweru.

When the Chronicle contacted the driver who was identified only as Masango, he said: “I am only a bus driver and I work under instructions. My bosses told me to drop the mourners off in Gweru and that’s what I did and that’s all I can say.”

Efforts to get a comment from Doves management were fruitless.