Rogue Syndicate Exploits Grieving Families in Zimbabwe’s Hospitals
HARARE – A corrupt network of hospital staff, mortuary attendants, and unregistered funeral parlours is running an illegal scheme that profits from grieving families at Parirenyatwa and Sally Mugabe Central Hospitals.
This death-for-profit operation targets patients who die before being formally admitted, misleading their relatives into paying high fees to unauthorized funeral parlours, while the bodies remain within the hospital mortuary.
It begins with a tragedy—a relative collapses at home, and their panicked family rushes them to the hospital.
Emergency medical technicians work frantically to stabilize the patient, offering a glimmer of hope. But upon arrival, that hope quickly fades as the patient passes away, leaving the family in shock and grief.
Normally, hospital protocol requires the body to be moved to the mortuary. Instead, a mortuary attendant falsely informs the grieving family that the hospital morgue is full or only accepts bodies brought in by the police.
The distraught relatives are then pressured into engaging a small, unknown funeral service conveniently parked near the hospital gates.
The funeral home hastily provides a quotation and loads the body into a makeshift hearse, claiming it will be transported to their facility.
However, instead of taking the body to a funeral home, the hearse discreetly drives around the block and re-enters the hospital through a less conspicuous entrance—returning the body to the same mortuary.
Behind the scenes, hospital mortuary staff accept cash kickbacks, allowing the unauthorized funeral parlours to use hospital facilities at a fraction of the cost of legitimate businesses.
A journalist posing as a grieving relative approached one of the suspected funeral homes at Parirenyatwa Hospital.
The representative, identifying himself as Steven, boldly admitted that his team worked with hospital insiders to facilitate body movements.
“I can arrange with our people inside to get the body into the mortuary, but we’ll collect it tomorrow. Our facility is in Mt Hampden,” Steven stated—revealing the depth of the collaboration between funeral parlours and hospital personnel.
Families are charged between US$150 and US$200 under the false pretense that their loved one’s body is being taken to an external facility—when in reality, it never leaves hospital grounds.
Several mortuary attendants, junior doctors and nurses are believed to receive kickbacks for directing families toward specific funeral parlours.
Efforts by Check Point to obtain an official response from Sally Mugabe Central Hospital were met with silence, as hospital management declined to comment on the claims.
Hospital CEO Dr. Hopewell Mungani briefly stated that officials were too busy to respond.
Meanwhile, Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals’ public relations officer, Mr. Tendayi Mautsi, acknowledged concerns but denied knowledge of fraudulent activities.
According to the Herald, larger funeral homes suspect that some unregistered businesses are influencing the market with unethical practices.
According to the Herald, larger funeral homes suspect that some unregistered businesses are influencing the market with unethical practices.
Muziwakhe Banda, director of Angel Light Funerals, defended their legitimacy, stating that they operate with a Memorandum of Understanding with the hospital and follow regulations.
As families continue to fall prey to this death-for-profit syndicate, there are growing calls for government intervention to ensure transparency in the funeral industry.
