Specialised logistics companies are charging R10 000 and more to transport bodies from South Africa to Zimbabwe. This excludes the cost of embalming the body and the coffin. Up to 100 bodies a week are processed through Beitbridge. According to research on the Gwanda district, “rather than burying bodies in South Africa, corpses are carried ‘home’ in expensive trailers towed by four-wheel drive vehicles. “Given the relatively good road network in South Africa and Zimbabwe, such spending on large, specially hired vehicles is largely unnecessary from a purely functional standpoint,” according to the researchers.
