Johanne Marange Sect Member Denies Rumours Of Kids' Mass Grave At Homestead
A member of the Johanne Marange Apostolic Sect in Bikita, Masvingo, says rumours he secretly buried nine of his children in mass graves are false and probably the work of his enemies.
The reports claimed Clever Maveto (67), a polygamist, buried his children, aged one, three and four years – as well as a 10-month-old toddler – under the cover of darkness after they allegedly succumbed to measles-related complications last month.
He had reportedly refused to take the children to the hospital for treatment.
H-Metro reported sources as saying Maveto buried the bodies in sets of threes.
But Maveto, who has 15 children with three wives, claimed he had only lost one son and three grandchildren. He said:
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I am prepared to let anyone exhume the bodies to check whether there is any mass grave here.
Only two of the children died of measles-related complications and the others died of natural causes.
The only problem was that when we buried the first two, we woke up as early as 5 AM to dig the graves and buried them that morning.
Police officers and officials from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, as well as Social Welfare representatives, visited the Maveto homestead following rumours of the existence of mass graves.
Maveto said the officials only found “the four graves and not the mass graves people are talking about”.
His children ran away, when they saw nurses, fearing they would be vaccinated against measles, despite showing signs of the disease. Added Maveto:
All my children don’t go to any clinic. We have our own doctors at church and they are responsible for dealing with any illness.
His senior wife, Dorcas Mhere, said they can easily treat measles and will not go against their beliefs.
Meanwhile, Sabhuku (village head) Gede said he had also heard the rumours of a mass grave at Maveto’s homestead, but the rumours have not been confirmed. He said:
Our only issue with Maveto, and many members of the Johanne Marange sect, is their attitude towards health matters.
We have a measles outbreak and all his children contracted the disease because they are not vaccinated and neither have they been taken to the clinic or hospital for treatment.
Now, that schools have opened, his children are back at school and exposing other children to measles.
