By Abel Zhakata
MUTARE – The burial of a well-known Dangamvura rank marshal turned into a strip show last Wednesday after mourners — both men and women — went naked apparently mimicking the deceased who was well known for hiring the services of commercial sex workers.
Ladies of questionable morals dared their male counterparts to engage in sexual intimacy at the graveside in full glare of Lawrence Masanga’s family members, relatives and neighbours.
As respectable relatives tried to give their beloved one a decent send-off, condoms were thrown into the grave, while nude dances and foul language overshadowed proceedings at Dangamvura Cemetery.
Had it not been for the intervention of level-headed mourners who stood their ground to bring order, a free porn show was in the making between an alleged commercial sex worker and a dreadlocked ragamuffin, after the pair apparently went into a compromising position to become intimate.
All this, they shouted, was what the deceased Lawrence did and wanted.
“I have never seen anything like this.
“It is unacceptable because it denigrates the very process of burying a deceased person.
“What pains most is that these things were happening in full glare of children who also attended the burial. What lessons are they going to learn from such wicked acts? The language was so strong and their actions were worse,” said an elderly woman who attended the burial.
Before the burial, the coffin bearing the deceased was driven around the city by touts who caused all sorts of problems to fellow road users.
This was followed by rampant looting of items at vending stalls that are located along the road to the cemetery.
Good Samaritans who were part of the procession had to pay vendors for items looted.
Traffic police officers tried to block the mourners from driving into the Central Business District, but they were outnumbered by the marauding rascals.
Those who were part of the weird happenings said property at the deceased’s house was destroyed as some of the mourners climbed on top of fridges and other kitchenware.
“It was total madness. Anything was possible at the funeral because touts had taken over,” said a relative who requested anonymity.
One of the videos that was taken at the graveyard which has gone viral on social media showed two men who were semi-naked with the crowd cheering them on to be in their birthday suits.
This is not the first time that mourners from the high-density suburb have hogged the limelight for the wrong reasons at funerals.
In July 2011, police arrested and fined four people who caused a stir after dancing naked in full view of mourners at a funeral.
Fifteen more people were rounded up a week later after attempting to do the same at another funeral.
Some women were fined for taking off their skirts, while some men removed their trousers. They were charged with public indecency. Manica Post
