Chief Mafala of Zvishavane has appealed for a common understanding between the parents of a 14-year-old Form Two boy who was electrocuted last year while in school at Dadaya High and the school authorities so that the boy can be buried.

The boy, Tanaka Chihwendo’s body has now clocked four months in the mortuary at a Zvishavane parlour with parents and the school authorities failing to find each other to set conditions for burial.

Tanaka, a bright and promising boy who always came tops in his class, was electrocuted in early October last year after he got into contact with a live power line while playing with other boys at Dadaya High School.

Since then, the boy’s relatives have been demanding a full report from the school amid reports that police and the power utility investigations have allegedly since discovered that the power line that electrocuted the boy was an illegal connection by the school.

The school, which has been footing mortuary bills being charged by a private funeral parlour, is still refusing to bow to the parents’ demands for fear of being sued.

The deceased boy’s family spokesperson, Mr Edson Mambo said they have since engaged lawyers to force the school to provide them with a report on the circumstances leading to the boy’s death.

“This is what we are asking for, a report from the school, at law when the kid is in school the school assumes the role of a parent so we are saying the school was the parent when our kid was electrocuted so they should just give us the biological parents a report of electrocution, but they are refusing so maybe there is something behind it and we have now become very curious,” said Mr Mambo.

He said the family lawyers were now handling the matter.

“The boy remains unburied and our lawyers have taken over, they are now handling the matter after which we will then decide on when to bury our departed boy,” he said.

Chief Mafala who has been mediating on the matter said the process has not yielded anything as yet with the boy’s body still unclaimed in the mortuary.

“It’s been a frustrating mediation process with nothing tangible as of yet. The boy’s body remains in the mortuary and this is my biggest worry. We need to put him to his final resting place so my appeal to the two parties is that let’s bury the boy, let us give him rest, and then if there are talks, let them continue after burial as we try to find each other,” he said.

Chief Mafala said the school has been incurring mortuary charges with the deceased family still adamant, sticking to their conditions and denying responsibility. Chief Mafala said it was a fact that the boy was electrocuted and any further investigations can be done even when the boy is buried.

“It was a very unfortunate incident but everyone is in pain but it’s important that we put the boy to rest,” he said.-Sunday News