By A Correpondent- A village head from Gokwe who is reportedly making it a habit to demand livestock to attend burials of his subjects who died away from home has caused yet more heartache for another bereaved family.

He demanded two goats for their son who had died in Botswana to be buried arguing that he had spent many years away from home.

Surprisingly, upon being paid by the Ziwumbwa family to bury their son Mzenda who died in Botswana on 26 April aged 44, village head Finias Chalisegera did not attend the funeral wake.

He also reportedly turned away some of the villagers who wanted to attend both the funeral wake and burial.

Chalisegera is, however, no stranger to controversy. Early this year he left villagers shocked after he refused to attend the burial of one of his subjects Barnabas Mabhara demanding two goats and two chickens while arguing that he did not belong to his village.

Despite being paid the two goats and two chickens he didn’t attend both the funeral wake and burial.

The Ziwumbwa family who paid $800 which was by then equivalent to two goats are now embroiled in a dispute with Chalisegera after they reported him to Chief Njelele where he was reportedly ordered to refund them their money.

So nasty is the feud that Chalisegera is threatening to banish the family from the village and asking them to dig up the remains of their son and bury them somewhere.

Speaking to B-Metro, the deceased’s father Solomon Ziwumbwa (71) said he was left devastated after the village head demanded two goats for his son to be buried at his homestead.

“It was just devastating,” he said.

“Mzenda was my first born who was raised here. He died in Botswana on 26 April and was buried on 4 May. As a family we were devastated when the village head demanded two goats for him to be buried while arguing that he had spent many years in Botswana.

“I had to give him $800 via EcoCash which was then equivalent to two goats. Shockingly, after paying him he did not even attend the funeral wake and burial. He was even turning away some of the villagers who attended both the funeral wake and burial,” he said.

On 4 June Ziwumbwa filed a complaint with Chief Njelele claiming Chalisegera had treated his family in an “unlawful and discriminatory manner”.

“On 4 June I reported the matter to Chief Njelele and he was summoned for a hearing where he was ordered to refund me. When we went back on 2 July to the Chief’s court where I was expected to get my money back, the Chief was however, not there and up to now he has not paid me back despite the fact that he was ordered by the chief to do so.”

As a way of “fixing” him, for reporting him (Chalisegera) to Chief Njelele, Ziwumbwa said the village head sued him for allegedly flouting Environmental Management Agency (Ema) regulations claiming his vegetable garden was erected on a wetland.

“On the same day we returned from Chief Njelele’s traditional court, Chalisegera summoned me while accusing me of erecting a vegetable garden on a wetland where some of the villagers also have their vegetable gardens. I was surprised why he sued me alone.

“I was then asked to pay $1 200 for a site visit by the chief. I told him I didn’t have the money and the visit was later conducted after he (Chalisegera) paid the amount in question since he wanted the report to be in his favour,” said Ziwumbwa.

He added: “We went back to the chief’s court on 16 July and I was chased away. I was not even given the chance to meet the chief to explain myself and ask for a refund from Chalisegera.

“On 20 July Chalisegera also chased away my wife from a village meeting saying he was going to expel my family from the community. He also charged that we should dig up our son’s grave and bury his remains somewhere. He swore that if we defy his orders, he would axe me to death”.

Ziwumbwa said it was not the first time that Chalisegera had threatened to expel him from the village. He said he once did it sometime in 2014.

When reached for comment Chalisegera refuted the accusations levelled against him saying Ziwumbwa was just after tarnishing his image.

“What he told you is not true. There is nothing like that. He is just after tarnishing my image. The family is fighting against me as they also want one of their relatives to be a village head,” he said.