THE family of murdered Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) activist Moreblessing Ali says it is failing to locate her body after State security agents seized it last year when it was found dumped in a well.
Ali’s family has vowed that her remains will only be buried after CCC interim chairman Job Sikhala who is also their lawyer has been released from remand prison.
Sikhala has been in pre-trial incarceration since his arrest on June 14 last year.
Moreblessing’s funeral has been one of Zimbabwe’s longest in history after her dismembered remains were discovered in a disused well in Chitungwiza’s Nyatsime area in June last year after she was allegedly murdered by known Zanu PF activist Pius Mukandi (alias Jamba) two weeks earlier.
Her United Kingdom-based brother, Washington, told NewsDay yesterday that the family is being denied access to her body at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals’ mortuary where the State claims it’s being kept.
“If I can be honest with you, I don’t know where the body is. If I can take you back, the body was once at Chitungwiza General Hospital mortuary,” Washington said.
“The body was stolen without the family’s knowledge and we were told that it was taken to Parirenyatwa Hospital.
“When my brothers and nephews tried to go and see the body, they were denied access.
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“No one saw the body. The State claimed that they had transferred the body to Parirenyatwa. So whether it is still there, we no longer know.”
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner, Paul Nyathi yesterday said: “People should state exactly who is denying them access to get the body.
“They should not just generalise. They must be specific on who is doing it rather than casting aspersions over every State institution.”
Washington, however, said the family would soon demand to see the body once Sikhala has been released from prison.
“One of the worst things is that Sikhala is still locked up and he is the one who was doing some major investigations, being the family lawyer,” he said.
“He is the one who would have been in a much better position of really guiding us in terms of where to go and what to do.
“As a family we just thought that Job was arrested because of the family.
“We just feel that Sikhala is part of the family and you can’t bury another part of the family when somebody who has been on the forefront is in prison.”
Washington also revealed that the family had engaged Members of Parliament in the UK so that they intervene in Sikhala’s case.
Ali went missing on 24 May last year after she was reportedly attacked and dragged away from a bar in Beatrice by Mukandi and her dismembered body was recovered from a well in the Nyatsime area two weeks later.
