Eight months on, star still not laid to rest

Some things force you to go into situations you dont want. It might be hard for you to believe, but no-one is rejoicing over this. We are having sleepless nights trying to get my brother laid to rest, Abigail Muparutsa was quoted by a London-based news agency from her Luton home. She declined to discuss details of those circumstances, only saying it was a family issue. ? She also denied the problem was money. If it were that, we would have long made an appeal for help, she said.

Pressed further to give a date for the burial, she replied: We will let you know. If I had my way, of course, this would have happened a long time ago.
She revealed she was talking to relatives around the world about the problem.
Former Matonto star Muzi Mangena, with whom Muparutsa spent his final months, said: I had been made to believe he had long been buried and was shocked to learn that his body is still here.
Muzi took Muparutsa into his London home after he found him in a bad shape on a visit to Northampton, where the Kanda Matombo star had just split from his partner, Christine Mukute. The couple had two children together.

Muzi said: I brought him down to London. He was reluctant to go to hospital and when his health deteriorated dramatically, I dragged him screaming and kicking to hospital to get checked. I took him to Whipps Cross University Hospital, which is closest to me, and he was found with advanced leukaemia (cancer of the blood or bone marrow).
He was immediately moved to cancer specialists St Bartholomews Hospital and put on an aggressive regime of chemotherapy. He was released a few weeks later in impressive shape.

Fortune stayed in Muzis London flat for four months in all, but the Tombofara star admits: Not once did I get a call from a member of his family. When his sister did call once, it was because he had asked.
Muparutsa returned to Northampton after the hospital helped him secure council accommodation. That would be the beginning of the end, Muzi said.
He was supposed to travel to London every other week to check-ups and he was free to come to my house the night before in order to be on time for his appointments. He did it twice and stopped. He would die a few weeks later and it became clear he had stopped taking his medication.

Muzi says Fortunes family could not avoid responsibility for what happened.
After he died, the family came to pick up his studio which was at my house. Now that we know the guy has not been buried, I just wonder how someone can be so quick to pick up Fortunes property and be so slow to give him a decent burial, he said.
Last week, the family turned down offers of help from Zimbabwean celebrities who wanted to raise money for the repatriation of the body believing that the delay was over 2,450. Last Saturday, superstar Oliver Mtukudzi also waded in and is believed to have held talks with the family and offered help.