Grave Mistake: Chipinge Family Buries Wrong Body, Unleashes Foreign Spirits

In a twist of tragicomedy, a Chipinge family is reeling from grief and confusion after mistakenly burying a Malawian man instead of their 23-year-old son, Peace Tafura, who was killed in a South African shootout. The mix-up occurred when the family repatriated a body from a South African mortuary, convinced it was Peace. The Malawian national was laid to rest on December 4 in Manyaya Village under Chief Mutema, only for the family to later discover the error.
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Despite initial doubts from family members, the hearse driver assured them it was Peace, even brushing off jokes about covering costs if the body turned out to be someone else. The horrifying truth emerged on the day of the burial when South African authorities alerted the driver to the mix-up. Two days later, on December 6, the Malawian’s remains were exhumed, prompting the family to seek guidance from traditional leaders to address spiritual and cultural concerns.
Theressa Tafirei, Peace’s aunt, expressed the family’s distress: “We thought we had given our son a proper send-off, not knowing it was someone else. Now that the stranger has been exhumed, they took the remains along with Peace’s bloody clothes and a blanket. We are in pain and uncertain about the repercussions for both families.”
Village head Tinonesana Sithole criticized the lack of body viewing, which could have prevented the error, and called for cleansing rituals to restore order: “They have tainted this area with foreign spirits.”
Meanwhile, Peace’s body remains in Pretoria as the family works to repatriate it. “We just want our son’s remains back so that we can lay him to rest properly,” said Martha Mutowo, Peace’s aunt.