(Last Updated on June 17, 2022 by zimdaily)
HARARE – A Harare family kept the corpse of their father indoors for four days amid claims they were praying for his resurrection. Garikai Chirongwe’s widow, Rashiwe Muchapondwa, 39, and their three children, were stuck with his corpse, for four days, praying he would rise from the dead. By the time neighbours alerted the police, Garikai’s body was in a decomposition state. He was 47 when he died.
A post-mortem was carried out and the body was taken to a funeral parlour. When it was brought back to the house, in Kuwadzana, it spent less than 30 minutes, before it was taken to Granville Cemetery for burial. Rashiwe said their religion denied them to accept death and the deceased was also deeply rooted in that belief.
“My husband was deeply rooted in his faith, it’s what they taught at our church,” said Rashiwe. “He complained of a headache last Wednesday and we invited one of our church members to pray for him.
“I want to believe that he died midnight, on the same day, but we continued praying, unaware that he had already died”. “There was an unpleasant smell and we opened all windows, until Monday, when police came to remove the body.
“He was in the dining room and we had to take him in to another room.
“He warned me over abandoning our faith and this tragedy came after we left our main church to meet as a small congregation after some differences