Nyaradzo Group Chief Executive Officer Philip Mataranyika has pleaded with members of the public to be patient when tempted to be harsh with service providers where service delivery could be slow.
In a recorded six-minute video message, Mataranyika said that the many deaths as a result of COVID-19 had put the end of life industry under immense pressure causing delays all round. He said:
Before we become harsh and angry, we must remember that our service providers are human beings who themselves are susceptible to the virus also.
They, too, have family and relatives who may have died but some of them will be at work because it’s their calling even when they were down only recently and rush back to work to serve.
He also explained that because of so many deaths, body swops may be made but this was never deliberate. Said Mataranyika:
Fellow countrymen and women, I want you to know that this is not deliberate. Don’t we all make mistakes?
If we do, why do we think the mistake by someone working in the end of life industry, especially in a pandemic situation is unforgiven? I know Zimbabweans to be tolerant and loving.
As we plead to you, for your love and tolerance, we pray to do all we can to lay our loved ones to rest in dignity and with respect.
Mataranyika said they were grateful that Zimbabwe has not yet reached a point where burials of the COVID-19 dead have been done in mass graves. He said:
We saw this, for example in 2020, when the US resorted to mass graves for the burial of their Covid-19 dead.
In April 2021, we witnessed India’s worst wave of the spread of COVID-19 and they, too, buried their dead in mass graves.
Thankfully in Zimbabwe, we have not yet reached that stage, but let us not be complacent. The future is uncertain and we could very well get to that stage.
Because we are still burying our dead the way we are and we have always done, I humbly ask you to be patient as we continue to give our loved ones the dignified burials they deserve, which we had grown to know and appreciate.