By CHUSA SICHONE
GOVERNMENT has resolved to have Idah Zulu, the 40-year-old Zambian woman whose body has remained unclaimed in Botswana since her death in November last year, buried in Livingstone.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs public relations officer Dorcas Chileshe said Government had decided that the local authority in Livingstone would bury Ms Zulu’s remains as that was where she said her mother was based.
Ms Chileshe said frantic efforts to locate her mother through the police, radio, newspapers and door-to-door announcements had failed.
None of the deceased’s relatives and friends had responded to the numerous appeals.
“The arrangement is that we bring the body to Livingstone because before she died, she told the immigration in Botswana that the mother was staying in Livingstone though no one came up.
“So there was just an agreement that they take the body to Livingstone so that local authorities can go ahead and bury if relatives don’t show up,” she said.
Ms Chileshe said as at March 10, 2016, Ms Zulu’s remains were still in Botswana awaiting finalisation of the repatriation process.
She said once the body arrived in Zambia, it would be handed over to the office of the Livingstone District Commissioner and that of the Town Clerk for disposal.
The Livingstone District Commissioner and Town Clerk were urged to keep records once they buried Ms Zulu to show her relatives in an event that they showed up.
Ms Zulu died after an illness on November 9, 2015 in Molepolole Prison where she was detained for living in Botswana illegally.