Eswatini High Court hears dispute over repatriation of deceased
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Times of Eswatini
In Eswatini, Muzi Shongwe has petitioned the High Court to stop his aunt and half-siblings from obstructing arrangements to repatriate and bury his brother, Mlungisi Shongwe, who died in South Africa. The family’s main dispute concerns the burial place, planned at the paternal home in Phonjwana, in the Lubombo region, the Times of Eswatini reports.
Eswatini’s High Court has been urgently asked to hear a family dispute over the repatriation and burial of Mlungisi Shongwe, who died in South Africa, the Times of Eswatini reports. His elder brother, Muzi Shongwe, is asking the court to prevent their aunt Sindisiwe Masango and his half-siblings, Zandile Malaza and Sanele Mngometulu, from interfering with the transport of the body, the funeral and the planned burial at Phonjwana, in the Lubombo region.
Muzi Shongwe accuses Sindisiwe Masango of withholding the deceased’s passport and birth certificate, documents needed for repatriation. An interim order issued on 13 October by the Big Bend Magistrates’ Court had required the return of those documents, as well as the birth certificate of the deceased’s child, to facilitate the transfer of the body from South Africa.
The aunt disputes this account and says the disagreement concerns the burial place, not the return of the body to Eswatini. The statements appear in affidavits filed with the High Court, which has yet to rule on the substance of the case.
