279 people missing post Cyclone Idai to be declare...

279 people missing post Cyclone Idai to be declared officially dead

Zim Now writer

Almost five years after Cyclone Idai hit Chimanimani and Chipinge in March 2019 and swept away

Government will declare dead 279 people who remain missing after Cyclone Idai devastated Manicaland almost five years ago.

“We are waiting for the High Court to avail the date to declare the class action as per our application,” the legal officer with the Attorney-General’s Office in Mutare, Mr Peter Garwe who is handling the case told The Manica Post.

He said the victims will soon be declared legally dead by the High Court sitting in Mutare in an unopposed class action initiated by Attorney-General Mrs Virginia Mabiza.

The class action saves the affected family members from the cost of individually going through the death declaration which any affected citizen can initiate after five years when a person goes missing and is presumed dead.

The publication reports that relatives of the missing persons interviewed said they have accepted that their loved ones are most probably deceased and welcome the painful but necessary closure that the legal declaration of death will bring.

Around 340 people were reported dead in Zimbabwe when Cyclone Itai hit in 2019 but recovered bodies were less than 100.