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Freeman Razemba Crime Reporter
The DNA profiling on the victims of the Chisumbanje ethanol tanker inferno will now be conducted on 13 bodies only after two families yesterday managed to identify four of their relatives at Mutare Provincial Hospital mortuary.
Results for the 13 victims will only be known in six weeks after a team of medical experts took blood samples from 19 of their relatives at the provincial hospital yesterday. Police in Mutare last night said the two families, Muyambo and Mariya, managed to identify the four victims, bringing the total number of those who have been identified to 12.

Police in Mutare yesterday confirmed that the team conducting the DNA tests, being led by African Institute of Biomedical Science Technology (AiBST) founder Professor Collen Masimirembwa, needed six weeks to carry out the tests.  The team arrived in Mutare on Tuesday before proceeding to Chipinge District Hospital mortuary to assess the bodies which were then transferred from Chipinge to Mutare Provincial Hospital mortuary the same day for DNA profiling which begun yesterday.

Last Wednesday 24 people were burnt, some beyond recognition, when the ethanol tanker collided with a T35 truck carrying mourners, resulting in an inferno. Acting Manicaland police traffic co-ordinator Chief Inspector Cyprian Mukahanana yesterday confirmed the developments and said the Muyambo family identified three of the victims while the Mariya family managed to identify one.
“Some of these victims had parts of their faces clear and the two families went inside the mortuary and identified them. We are now making plans for them to ferry the bodies to Chipinge for burial,” he said.

Chief Insp Mukahanana said they will soon release the names of the four. He said by last night blood samples had been taken from all the 19 relatives.