A chilling tale has emerged from Zvimba East, leaving residents and authorities alike deeply disturbed. Tinashe Chiguma, a 32-year-old man claiming employment with a cemetery management company, alleges he has spent years exhuming bodies under the cover of darkness, disposing of them in a dam and various other locations to make way for new burials. His story, however, takes a far more unsettling turn.
Chiguma’s account is not simply one of grave robbing; it’s a narrative steeped in fear and the supernatural. He claims the corpses he has handled are now haunting him, inflicting physical harm. “I have suffered terribly from being bitten by the corpses of the people I exhume and dispose of,” he recounted in a recent interview.
“In the more than five years I have worked at this cemetery, I have exhumed and disposed of more than 40 bodies of men and women in different places, including the dam and ditches. Now, a corpse of a traditional healer has bitten my left hand, and I am constantly bleeding.”
This terrifying ordeal, he explains, has driven him from his home, forcing him to seek refuge in the bush and the homes of others. His current residence is with Priscilla Kativhu (60), who confirms his troubled state, stating that he is plagued by nightmares, claiming to see the deceased coming to bite him. Chiguma’s mother, Molly Takavanda (50), corroborates her son’s harrowing account.
Chiguma detailed his grim routine: “I was shown which graves to exhume at night, as I lived at the cemetery. At around 10 or 11 pm, I would wake up, exhume the indicated graves, dismember the bodies – sometimes even decapitating them and severing other limbs – put them in sacks, and then use a wheelbarrow to dispose of the bodies in the dam, ditches, and other various locations.”
He claims he receives US$15 for each exhumation and disposal. He even described one particularly disturbing case involving the exhumation of a traditional healer, whose body and associated paraphernalia were disposed of in the dam. “Among the bodies I exhumed, one was that of a traditional healer who was buried with pots, needles, knives, beads, charms, and other items. I took the body and threw it into the dam, along with the tools of their trade, and disposed of those separately,” he stated. He further revealed that some bodies were left in the bush to be scavenged by dogs, while others were placed in sacks and discarded in the veld. News reporters were shown one such sack, allegedly containing the remains of a body.
Chiguma claims he targets bodies buried without coffins, as they are easier to remove. His actions, he alleges, were at the behest of the cemetery owner, driven by a shortage of burial space. Attempts by the news crew to contact the cemetery owner for comment proved unsuccessful.
The gravity of these allegations has not been lost on the authorities. National police spokesperson, Commissioner Paul Nyathi, commented on the case, stating: “This is a matter we are now beginning to investigate to see how things unfold. We commend your work, journalists, for bringing such hidden issues to light.” The police have pledged a thorough investigation into this disturbing matter, which involves not only allegations of grave robbing and desecration but also the disturbing claims of supernatural repercussions.
