The boy, Tanaka Chihwendo’s body has now clocked four
months in the mortuary at a Zvishavane parlour with parents and the school
authorities failing to find each other to set conditions for burial.
Tanaka, a bright and promising boy who always came tops in
his class, was electrocuted in early October last year after he got into
contact with a live power line while playing with other boys at Dadaya High
School.
Since then, the boy’s relatives have been demanding a full
report from the school amid reports that police and the power utility
investigations have allegedly since discovered that the power line that
electrocuted the boy was an illegal connection by the school.
The school, which has been footing mortuary bills being
charged by a private funeral parlour, is still refusing to bow to the parents’
demands for fear of being sued.
The deceased boy’s family spokesperson, Mr Edson Mambo said
they have since engaged lawyers to force the school to provide them with a
report on the circumstances leading to the boy’s death.
“This is what we are asking for, a report from the school,
at law when the kid is in school the school assumes the role of a parent so we
are saying the school was the parent when our kid was electrocuted so they
should just give us the biological parents a report of electrocution, but they
are refusing so maybe there is something behind it and we have now become very
curious,” said Mr Mambo.
He said the family lawyers were now handling the matter.
“The boy remains unburied and our lawyers have taken over,
they are now handling the matter after which we will then decide on when to
bury our departed boy,” he said.
Chief Mafala who has been mediating on the matter said the
process has not yielded anything as yet with the boy’s body still unclaimed in
the mortuary.
“It’s been a frustrating mediation process with nothing
tangible as of yet. The boy’s body remains in the mortuary and this is my biggest
worry. We need to put him to his final resting place so my appeal to the two
parties is that let’s bury the boy, let us give him rest, and then if there are
talks, let them continue after burial as we try to find each other,” he said.
Chief Mafala said the school has been incurring mortuary
charges with the deceased family still adamant, sticking to their conditions
and denying responsibility. Chief Mafala said it was a fact that the boy was
electrocuted and any further investigations can be done even when the boy is
buried.
“It was a very unfortunate incident but everyone is in pain
but it’s important that we put the boy to rest,” he said. Sunday News
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