Bulawayo City Council has approved plans to exhume a grave at West Park Cemetery following a dispute between two families over the ownership of the burial site.
The row centres around Grave 19 in the Old Anglican Section of the cemetery, where both the Saunyama and Somkence families claim their loved one was buried.
According to the latest Health, Housing and Education Committee report, Florence Saunyama, who died in 2003 aged 69, was laid to rest in the disputed grave.
However, a year later, in 2004, Caleb Somkence was also buried in the same section — although records do not show the exact location of his grave.
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“The section and fees books showed that the late Caleb Somkence (male, 73) was buried on the 10th of November 2004 in the old Anglican general section. However, the grave number was not captured in both books. The family of Caleb Somkence had since erected a tombstone on grave number 19 Anglican general section since they believed that their deceased person was buried there,” the report read.
“A meeting was held on the 8th of January 2025 with family representatives of the deceased persons believed to be buried in grave 19 Old Anglican Section, West Park Cemetery. The meeting recommended that to ascertain whose remains were in grave 19 there was a need for exhumation so that both families find closure on the matter. There would be a need to exhume the nearby graves as well to determine if the remains belonged to one of the two families.”
The council has since authorised its health department to cover the costs of the exhumation exercise, which may include checking nearby unmarked graves.
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