- A 43-year-old man identified as Zakhele Cindi has refused to bury his father over his failure to play his role since his childhood
- He was not only a deadbeat dad but also denied him a chance to get a national ID, which has put his life at a standstill
- For Cindi, the unresolved trauma makes him question why he should shoulder responsibility in death when he felt denied responsibility in life
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In a modest corner of Pietermaritzburg, 43-year-old Zakhele Cindi tends to rows of cabbage, watering them carefully under the morning sun. It is humble work, but for Cindi, it is survival.
Source: Youtube
Without a birth certificate or identity document, formal employment has long remained out of reach. Yet it is not only poverty that weighs on him.
Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, Cindi revealed that his father’s body has been lying in a government mortuary since the beginning of January, and that he has no intention of claiming it.
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His refusal, he explains, is rooted in a painful past. Cindi says his father abandoned him during childhood and failed to register his birth.
Born at home and never issued with official documents, he grew up without the paperwork that unlocks schooling, employment and access to basic services.
The absence of an identity document has shaped his entire adult life. He hoped that reconnecting with his father might help untangle the bureaucratic knots that have kept him on the margins.
Instead, he says, he was met with further estrangement, including an alleged history of abuse and a protection order his father had once taken out against him.
For Cindi, the unresolved trauma outweighs cultural expectations of filial duty. He questions why he should shoulder responsibility in death when he felt denied responsibility in life.
“People often try to help me,” he said, “but when they learn I don’t have documents, they run away.”
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In many communities, burial is not merely a practical matter but a profound cultural obligation. To leave a body unclaimed can attract social stigma. Yet for Cindi, the issue feels painfully personal rather than symbolic.
He does not speak with anger so much as resignation. While a body waits in cold storage, he continues watering cabbages, earning what he can, and navigating a life stalled by missing papers.
“I stand firm,” he said quietly. “I will not fetch the body because there is nothing I can do while my life is standing still.”
As mortuaries fill and families grapple with grief complicated by hardship, Cindi’s story lays bare a quieter truth: sometimes, the weight of the past is heavier than tradition.
Source: NgGossips
