SOCIALITE Michelle “Moana” Amuli, who died in horrific car accident on November 8, is set to be buried today after the High Court resolved a three-week-long impasse between her estranged parents over handling of the funeral and burial site.
Justice Pisirayi Kwenda found no legal
basis to stop the burial according to Muslim religion in line with her father’s
wishes.
Moana’s father Mr Ishmael Amuli and mother
Ms Yolanda Kuvaoga desired different funeral ceremonies and different grave
sites.
The burial order designated Warren Hills
Cemetery as Moana’s resting place, but the mother insisted that she be buried
the Christian way at Zororo Cemetery.
Justice Kwenda ruled that the burial order
issued to Mr Amuli on November 18, 2020 was correctly issued with the knowledge
of the mother, who conceded during the hearing that there was nothing wrong
with the manner of its issuance.
“It remains valid. There is no reason to
replace a valid burial order with another,” said Justice Kwenda. The
application for an interdict cannot succeed.”
The Burial and Cremation Act [Chapter
5:03] has no provision that deals with resolution of burial disputes and the
judge felt it might be that in the past such a provision was not necessary
because of the richness of culture and adherence thereto by the various ethnic
communities in Zimbabwe.
Given this novel case, there might be need
for legislative intervention prescribing a dispute resolution mechanism that
gave prominence to customary law remedies.
But in deciding this case, Justice Kwenda
found that there was no evidence that Mr Amuli would exclude Ms Kuvaoga from
her daughter’s funeral saying: “The assignment of roles at a funeral as stated
in this case, does not amount to a restriction on the applicant’s rights to be
participate in activities at her daughter’s funeral which warrants the
intervention of the court.
“The applicant has not established the
legal basis for the reliefs sought.” Justice Kwenda said the relevance of what
Ms Kuvaoga said was Moana’s worldly lifestyle and her alleged celebrity status
was difficult to fathom.
“It appears to me that the applicant does
not appreciate the possible implications of over-emphasising the deceased’s
secular habits which she believes gave her an elevated social standing in her
last days because she could be basking in the grandeur of the perceived
status,” said Justice Kwenda.
The judge said Ms Kuvaoga’s oral evidence
had no relevance to the relief sought. On the other hand, he found that Moana
was born to the Amuli family.
To this end, the court found, the right to
family was fundamental and protected in the constitution under Chapter 4 Bill
of rights.
In this regard, Justice Kwenda ruled that
Mr Amuli raised his daughter from the age of barely a year until she attained
adulthood and was her sole custodian and guardian. Herald
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