By A Correspondent- Brother to Honde Valley accident victim Abel Rutope (24) who was reportedly buried with missing privates has trashed the news as fake.

Innocent Rutope said contrary to the misleading report, the family buried the deceased with all his body parts.

He said:

“The woman in the picture above is the person who spread fake news and lies that one of the honde valley accident victims was buried without private parts. The truth is she is not close or even related to the deceased.

These are the type of people who create fake stories and publish on social media. As a member of the Rutope family I disown the person saying that my relative had no private parts.

She is not part of our family and what she said is totally a lie. We buried our relative with all his body parts equal. Police should arrest such people who misrepresent and publish falsehoods on social media.

These are the people who misuse social media and tarnish others. Journalist should stop publishing false stories which are malicious and distressing.

We republish the story:

The body of one of the victims of Sunday’s haulage truck accident that claimed seven lives on the spot at Hauna Growth Point in Honde Valley was ferried to Hauna District Hospital with its privates missing.

The deceased man’s family, Abel Rutope (24), told The Manica Post that no one is giving a satisfactory explanation on what happened to the privates.

Rutope’s sister, Annia Chingosi of Buwu Village who was visibly distraught, told the publication that they were still to come to terms with what could have happened to her brother.

Although they were not pointing fingers at anyone for the missing body parts, they feel there are more questions than answers to their plight. 

“Rutope is my bother and when we went to the hospital after being informed that he was among those who perished in this accident, we were shown his body,”she said.

The medical personnel at the hospital uncovered his body for us to positively identify him as well as see the injuries he had sustained.

They also pointed out that they did not understand why his privates were missing. They advised us to visit the accident scene to search for the privates and that is the reason why we are here.

We really cannot point a finger at anyone now, but we cannot rule out foul play. How can his privates disappear like that?

When we inspected his remains, his pair of trousers and undergarments were pulled down to knee level. This is painful as we might be forced to bury him without the privates.

A nurse at Hauna Hospital who declined to be named citing protocol revealed that indeed the private parts were missing with no clue of their whereabouts. Said the nurse:

We just received the bodies as they were and we hope they will be able to retrieve the privates from the accident scene.

Seven people died on the spot when the driver of a Harare-bound haulage truck ferrying bananas to the market lost control at a curve on a steep slope a few metres from Hauna Growth Point in Honde Valley.

Of the 13 people who were injured, five of them were in critical condition and were transferred to Victoria Chitepo Provincial Hospital in Mutare.

The seven victims were identified as Gracious Masuka (49), Judah Katamabarare (32), Tendai Moses Mangemba (48), Tsitsi Makwiyana (14), Abel Rutope (24), Ethel Jenjani (41) and Sarah Njumira (44).