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A human skull and bones

Andile Tshuma, Chronicle Reporter
HUMAN remains have been found exposed at two different sites in Kezi, Matobo district.

When The Chronicle visited the area, the human remains were scattered along the banks of Bhode River near Kezi Business Centre.

Chief Nyangazonke of Kezi also went to the scene with the police following the discovery.

Speaking at the scene last week, Chief Nyangazonke said they suspect that the remains belong to people killed during the liberation war.

Some of the remains found indicate that the bodies could have been buried in a mass grave as about four skulls were found very close to each other.

“I was informed by my advisory committee that villagers had stumbled upon open shallow graves along the banks of Bhode River. It is unfortunate that nobody was guarding the bodies and that has given evil people an opportunity to come and harvest body parts for ritual purposes. Now at a time when Tsikamutandas are terrorising villagers, they could be the ones coming to steal these things so that they could then come back and frame people, claiming to have found these things from homesteads,” said the chief.

Chief Nyangazonke said he was in the process of consulting the community on how to deal with the issue.

“We are trying to chart the way forward. Perhaps we will dig out the rest of these bones and rebury them somewhere else, or we will just collect what is there and just bury them near these other graves. It is saddening to find human remains lying in the open like this as if they were animal bones. It is actually taboo in our culture,” said the chief.

Some of the graves are suspected to be royal graves in which former chiefs and princes were laid to rest.

Mrs Antonetta Nyathi, the woman who stumbled on the human remains, said she was shocked.

“I did not even dig 20cm into the soil as I just needed soil to go and work on my mud floors in my home. I saw bones, I thought it was an animal at first, and then I noticed from the posture in which the bones lay on the ground that it was a human. The ribs, the skull, it was all exposed. The only part that remained concealed was the feet. I panicked, left everything and went to tell my husband about it. We then decided to go and report the matter to our headman,” said Mrs Nyathi.

Matabeleland South Police spokesperson Inspector Philisani Ndebele said he had not yet received a report on the matter.

@andile_tshuma