Fri, 12 May 2017 12:57:50 +0000
By AARON CHIYANZO
ABOUT 50 deaths are recorded at the Lusaka City Council (LCC) burial permit office based at University Teaching Hospital (UTH) on a daily basis.
And Lusaka’s Bauleni compound residents are shocked that unclaimed bodies from UTH are dumped in mass graves like garbage at Leopards Hill Cemetery.
LCC assistant public relations manager Brenda Katongola disclosed that a total of 980 deaths were recorded at the LCC burial permit office based at UTH within the past three weeks.
Ms Katongola explained that of the 980 deaths, 164 were transferred out of Lusaka district, 549 were buried at LCC established cemeteries while 296 were burials conducted in other cemeteries within Lusaka.
“A total of 549 burials were conducted in the Lusaka City Council’s established cemeteries. Out of this 146 burials took place at Old and New Leopards Hill cemeteries, 246 were burials at Chunga, while 157 burials were at Chingwere cemetery,” she said.
Ms Katongola said that the council recently advertised for the burial of 49 bodies which lay unclaimed in the UTH mortuary for disposal.
And the LCC has dispelled claims that unclaimed bodies from the UTH were being disposed of by dumping them like garbage in a mass grave. But the practice has been confirmed by Bauleni residents.
An eye-witness, Lilian Lungu, a resident of Bauleni compound, told the Daily Nation that she was shocked by the manner in which the bodies were buried.
Ms Lungu explained that she had witnessed a tipper truck full of bodies dump them like garbage in a mass grave at Leopards Hill cemetery.
She said that one could not believe that they were human beings being buried because of the manner in which the exercise was conducted.
Ms Lungu said what she witnessed was a sorry site considering the fact that they were human bodies being dumped like trash.
A group of Bauleni compound residents whose names have been withheld also confirmed that the LCC was dumping bodies in mass graves.
They said that at first they did not even realize that it was dead human beings the council had been disposing of in that manner.
One of them said that for a long time she had been thinking the LCC had been helping UTH dispose of used substances but not humans until she realized the horror of what was happening.
