BULAWAYO – A family from Nkayi, Matabeleland North, travelled 1,000km to bury their relative violently killed in a hit-and-run accident in Johannesburg. Two weeks later, they got a call from a Lesotho family demanding the body back: they had buried the wrong man.

Tankiso Sotyato’s body was returned to South Africa on Tuesday last week, and he will get his second burial in Lesotho – ending two months of hell for his family.

The Zimbabwean family, who spent R14,500 in travel costs repatriating a body they assumed was that of 31-year-old Tendai Nkala, say they are trying to raise a similar amount as they plan a second funeral.

The mix-up happened at the Forensic Pathology Services mortuary in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.

Nkala’s relatives say when they turned up on December 3 to collect his body, it was covered in bandages save for the mouth and nose – making it nearly impossible to identify him.

Father-of-one Nkala, who worked as a delivery man for a liquor shop and lived in Raandfontein, was the victim of a hit and run accident in Roodepoort on November 26 last year. Sotyato’s body was found dumped on Polly Street in central Johannesburg in the same month, it is thought he was the victim of a violent mob beating. The bodies were taken to the government mortuary.

When they unknowingly buried Sotyato in Zenka, a rural village in the district of Nkayi, the Nkala family thought they had put the trauma of Tendai’s violent, unsolved death behind them.

Then on December 18, just days before Christmas, came a phone call that turned their lives upside down. The mortuary, to their horror, had discovered the mix-up and called Nkala’s former workplace, setting-off a chain of events that led to the February 4 exhumation, which was done with help of the Zimbabwe government.

“It’s traumatising, quite a shock to everyone. It’s not something that you can get used to, or get off your mind because it’s unheard of,” Tendai’s uncle, Nhlanganiso Nkala, told ZimLive in Johannesburg.

Sotyato’s equally-traumatised family, whose enquiries with the mortuary led to the discovery of the mix-up, initiated talks with the Nkalas and asked for their body back – giving them three months to do it.

Tendai’s aunt, Sifelani, said from Zimbabwe: “Once we knew we had buried the wrong body, that was the last time we slept peacefully. How do you sleep knowing that we have a stranger buried in your homestead?”

Burial delay … Tendai Nkala, was the victim of a hit-and-run accident in South Africa

The process to exhume Sotyato, which required government approval and a lot of paperwork from South Africa, took over a month to get approval.

Villagers gathered to witness an event they had never seen – and one they never wish to see again. The coffin was recovered intact, according to Etwell Mbewe, the Nkayi District Principal Administration Officer, and immediately handed over to a funeral parlour to return the body to Johannesburg. The Zimbabwe government paid for the repatriation.

“It’s a load off our shoulders,” Sifelani continued. “Hopefully we have given the other family some peace, now we must raise money to bring our son home.”

The mortuary, hoping to avoid a repeat, has asked the Nkala family to give them Tendai’s closest relative for DNA matching before releasing his body. The process was still ongoing on Monday, February 11.

The Nkala family is appealing for help to raise R14,500 to get Tendai to Zimbabwe. You can assist by calling Nhlanganiso Nkala on +27787230998