UNEARTHED: Human bones
Several human bones were discovered at Bombadi Ward in Maun on Wednesday by workers digging trenches for a project that draws water from a treatment plant near Maun General Clinic to Shashe pump station.
Work had to be stopped as Kgosi Mauricio George Bendu of Bombadi was called to the site where he explained that the place was used as an emergency burial place in the late 60s.
Bendu told journalist who were on site that in the late 60s there was an outbreak of an unknown disease which affected mostly Herero people.
“It affected the Hereros who had relocated from Namibia and Angola and because the place was just a bush next to the then Hospital, it had to be used as an emergency burial place.”
Bendu said there were no mortuaries at the time and with people dying in high numbers they were forced to bury close to the Hospital.
“It was terrible and prisoners had to be used too in burials as death rate was very high,” he said.
He said that they did not protect the place because relatives of those buried there are not known adding that the current company doing the project could have dug further than the previous ones because they did their digging without extracting anything.
Principal Water Engineer at the Department of Water Affairs Gabalemogwe Moanakwena said that the bones were found a kilometre from the treatment plant.
He said that their project which started in January is expected to end October this year. Meanwhile Maun Police Station Commander Superitandant Kenanao Badumetse told The Voice in a telephone interview that arrangements will be made with District Commissioner’s Office to re-bury the bones.
bones
A very sound account of how the bones got buried there… its just a pity that people were buried like dogs bogologolo…
I wonder if the kgosi did not know about the project,because if he was formerly informed he should have warned before the company started operating.Why wait until the bones are excavated???