Renowned playwright Mbongeni Ngema’s family is looking to exhume his body and move him to a different location following his burial at Chesterville Heroes’ Acre in Red Hill Cemetery, Durban.
Mbongeni died on 27 December 2023 in a head-on collision while returning from a funeral in the Eastern Cape.
The Sarafina! producer’s close associates revealed to Sunday World that the decision to bury Mbongeni at Red Hill was made by his disputed legal wife, Mpumelelo Gumede, together with the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government. However, the decision to exhume came after his marriage certificate from the Department of Home Affairs declared that he died single.
It is reported by the above-mentioned publication that Mbongeni’s family wanted to bury him in eMfana because he had sung about the location in his song Mhla Ngifayo (When I Die) with the music group, Baobab Sisters. The associate shares that the family submitted the song to its legal team to help in the reburial process.
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The decision to exhume him was not unexpected, as the Ngema family, along with his customary wife, Yolanda ‘Wanda’ Moncho (with whom the director shares a child), disagreed with Mpumelelo. Before Mbongeni’s funeral, Wanda reportedly wrote to the KwaZulu-Natal premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, asking for assistance in the involvement of the preparations for his funeral and burial.
Wanda and the Ngema family have asked the deceased’s lawyer, Advocate Christopher Shabangu, to initiate a legal process of the exhumation for them to return Mbongeni to eMfana.
“It is premature for me to talk about this matter, therefore I cannot comment at the moment,” said the advocate when asked for comment by Sunday World.
Also see: WATCH: Jacob Zuma’s moving tribute to Mbongeni Ngema
