By Givemore Chare – It’s not even shocking in Zimbabwe, takajaira zvisingafanire kujairika. When a rich or powerful person dies, suddenly the powerful become available. Convoys move. Suits appear. Cameras arrive. Politicians, businesspeople and the elite rush to be seen paying condolences.

But when 97 ordinary Zimbabweans perish in the Kariba ferry disaster, where is that same urgency? Where are the convoys? Where is the national spectacle? Where is the sustained attention? Vema Skits inga hatina kukuonai muchinobata maooko wani. Kunyepera kudzungaira masvika kuMansion evapfumi.

Ngatimbobvunzai zvinorwadza kubvunza. Have we created a society where the death of the powerful is a national event, while the death of ordinary people is reduced to a statistic?

Ninety-seven people died in the August 2026 Lake Kariba disaster, the country’s deadliest ferry disaster and an official inquiry has now been appointed to examine how the tragedy happened.

Yet our society can mobilise extraordinary attention around one prominent funeral while struggling to maintain the same intensity for dozens of ordinary families burying their loved ones.

That is not just a question of mourning. It is a question of whose lives we have decided are important. If your wealth can summon the powerful to your funeral, but poverty makes your death almost invisible, then we have a moral crisis not merely an economic one.

Asiwo ngatingozviziva kuti the poor do not need elite condolences after death as much as they need dignity, safety, accountability and protection while they are alive.

One rich man’s coffin must never be allowed to cast a shadow over 97 ordinary coffins.
Zimbabwe must learn to mourn the powerless with the same seriousness with which it mourns the powerful.