MDC-T activist buried three years after death

Comment & Analysis
BY RUTENDO MAWERE GOKWE — Moses Chokuda, an MDC-T activist, killed by Midlands governor Jason Machaya’s son and three other Zanu PF supporters was finally buried in Chipere village in Gokwe yesterday, nearly three years after his death.

The burial only went ahead after the governor gave the slain activist’s family 20 cattle, US$15 000 cash and bought a coffin as compensation.

The Chokudas had reportedly demanded 70 cattle, US$15 000 and a virgin girl, but the demands were reduced after the intervention of Chief Moses Njelele.

The governor is yet to give the family an additional 15 cattle.

The Standard was informed that before collecting Moses’ remains from the Gokwe mortuary, where they had been removed from a metal coffin and put in a plastic bag by police, the Chokudas spent nearly an hour alone inside.

No one knows what they were doing inside the building, where even mortuary attendants and Chief Njelele, who mediated between the Chokuda and Machaya families, were not allowed.

Mourners who went for body viewing yesterday said they only saw bones in the white coffin. This was hardly surprising as Moses’ body lay in the mortuary for nearly three years with his family demanding justice.

Machaya’s son Farai, Abel Maphosa, Edmore Gana and Bothwell Gana were last month sentenced to 18 years in jail for the March 2009 murder.

Machaya, who is also the Zanu PF provincial chairman, attended the funeral where he preached forgiveness.

“When people wrong each other, it’s only prudent to ask for forgiveness, hence our engagement with the Chokuda family,” Machaya said.

“I have children and I know how painful it is to lose a son, but what we have witnessed today is a sign of greater things to come.

“We are aware that Moses left a son and a wife, we will try to help the Chokuda family and we are sorry for what happened.”

Tavengwa Chokuda, Moses’s father, said the case must be a warning to perpetrators of violence that they were not above the law.

“The Machayas realised their mistake and we have forgiven them, we can drink together,” he said.

Chief Njelele, who mediatated between the Chokudas and the Machayas, said he was initially afraid to get involved in the matter after hearing that Moses was “avenging” his death. His father claimed his son had been seen seated on top of his coffin and had chased away self-proclaimed prophets who wanted to conduct prayers before collecting his body for burial.

“I just decided to act like (South African president) Jacob Zuma and be a facilitator so that the boy who has been dead for two years and nine months is buried,” he told mourners. “In our culture we don’t allow a corpse to be kept for more than two days.

“So this had worried me for a long time, but I am glad we have laid him to rest.”

But Moses’ widow Ruramai Chokuda said she had not forgiven her husband’s killers.

“I am still grieving and I have not forgiven the murderers and the burial is not the end of Moses,” she said.

Finance minister Tendai Biti told more than 200 mourners that the case was a reminder that political violence was retrogressive.