Munyaradzi Muronzi, the owner of Restland Memorial Cemetery, has been granted US$200 bail following his arrest on allegations of digging up corpses and reselling graves to grieving families.
The charges against him include violations of the Graves and Corpses Act, and he appeared before Magistrate Isheanesu Matova last week.
Muronzi’s troubles began when he acquired 3.6 hectares of land in Rainham under the jurisdiction of the Zvimba Rural District Council in 2015, intending to use it as a private cemetery.
However, it was discovered that the land had previously served as a burial site for locals, a fact that was not acknowledged by the council.
In 2018, Muronzi’s company obtained permission to remove and rebury 69 graves to facilitate the development of roads and parking areas in the new cemetery. During the reburials, it is alleged that Muronzi employed workers who improperly handled human remains, violating established protocols.
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On December 5, 2024, Mabelreign police received a tip-off regarding these alleged violations and conducted an investigation at the cemetery. The authorities found human remains while new graves were being dug. When called to the cemetery, Muronzi presented documentation from 2018 supporting his application for the reburial of the 69 graves.
However, during the investigation, it was revealed that 78 additional graves had been removed without authorization. Muronzi was unable to provide a satisfactory explanation for exceeding the number of approved graves, leading to his formal charges. He is scheduled to appear in court on January 15 for a routine remand hearing.
