President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesperson, George Charamba, said that families of deceased people should quickly bury their dead rather than burden the State by keeping the bodies in morgues.
Charamba made the comments using his Twitter handle @jamwanda2 in an apparent reference to a statement by Beitbridge District Hospital in which it said that it had temporarily suspended mortuary services due to power cuts. Said Charamba:
Why should corpses be kept? Bury them! Keep your corpse at your house if you love the bizarre. Just don’t burden the state with corpses.
In a memo dated November 9, the Hospital blamed lengthy power cuts and high temperatures being experienced in the area for its decision to immediately halt mortuary services.
Rolling power cuts that have been ongoing for several months have negatively affected every sector of the country’s economy – mining, farming, retail, telecommunications, health – and households.