There will be no body viewing at the funeral of Zimbabwean businessman Wicknell Chivayo and his wife, Lucy Muteke, after relatives were told that the helicopter crash which killed them left the victims’ remains severely burnt and dismembered.
The decision was announced by Chivayo’s uncle and family spokesperson, Herbert Chivayo, as mourners gathered at the businessman’s home in Gletwin, Harare. President Emmerson Mnangagwa was also at the residence to pay his respects to the family.
Speaking to the mourners in Shona, Herbert said some of the victims’ heads were completely missing from their bodies. He said the remains had been scattered across the crash site and that forensic experts were still working to identify and separate them through DNA testing.
“Their body parts were scattered everywhere, and their heads were cut off from their torsos,” he said.
“That accident really scared us. Even when we do the burial, we are not going to have a body viewing,” he said.
According to the family, burial will take place on Wednesday, at Glen Forest cemetery. The remains of Chivayo, Lucy and the other victims are being examined as investigators try to establish exactly what happened in the final minutes of the flight.
The helicopter came down at Kudenga Farm near Marondera on Wednesday evening, about 70km east of Harare. The aircraft had taken off from Gandami in Chikomba, where Chivayo and Lucy were building a rural home. It crashed about 40 minutes after departure, killing everyone on board.
Police and government officials initially said six people were in the helicopter. The official account identified the aircraft as carrying Chivayo, three other passengers and two pilots. No one survived.
But a senior security aide to Chivayo, Froster Chisi, gave a different account. Chisi was travelling in a separate helicopter with other security personnel and said the aircraft that crashed had five people on board: Chivayo, Lucy, Lucy’s aide and the two pilots.
“There was the boss, his wife, the wife’s aide and two pilots,” Chisi said.
The conflicting accounts have left an important question over who was travelling in the crashed helicopter and who was in the second aircraft. Chisi was employed as Chivayo’s security aide, yet he was not on the aircraft carrying his employer. He was instead travelling in another helicopter which landed safely.
Chisi said the two helicopters had left Gandami together and encountered difficult weather during the return journey. He said Chivayo’s pilot reported that the aircraft was in cloud and had not managed to get out of it.
“On our way back, the weather became challenging and our pilot suggested that we reroute and go via Bromley instead. What I observed during the pilots’ communication was that the pilot flying the boss kept saying, ‘I’m in bad weather, I haven’t exited the cloud.’”
Chisi said the last communication from Chivayo’s pilot came while the helicopter was flying over Surrey. The pilot of the second aircraft then said he was about 10 minutes from his destination. Chivayo’s pilot appeared confused when asked which destination he was approaching, Chisi said.
“His last communication was that he was flying over Surrey. Our pilot then said he was 10 minutes from destination, and the pilot flying the boss appeared confused, asking, ‘Which destination?’ Our pilot responded that Marondera, but no reply came. All communication with the other helicopter was lost.”
The security team landed in Marondera and waited for Chivayo’s helicopter. When it failed to arrive, they flew on to Harare and collected vehicles, believing the aircraft could have landed elsewhere because of the weather. Chisi said they spent more than an hour trying to reach Chivayo, Lucy and the crew by telephone before learning that the helicopter had crashed.
His account was given as government officials were saying there had been six people on board. The difference has drawn attention because Chisi was part of Chivayo’s close-protection team and was one of the last people known to have been in contact with the crew before the crash.
The aide also attracted public attention during a television interview after the accident. He was seen chewing bubblegum while speaking about the crash, a detail that quickly became a subject of discussion online as viewers focused on his account of the flight and the passenger numbers.
The condition of the wreckage has added to the difficulty of establishing the sequence of events. Investigators found that the aircraft had broken apart across a wide area of farmland. Human remains were recovered from the scene and taken for forensic examination. The work includes DNA testing to identify the victims and match the remains to their families.
George Mashababe, director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe, said early findings indicated that the aircraft’s tail struck the ground first. Fuel spilled on impact and a fire then spread across the crash site, burning the surrounding grass. The aircraft’s black box was recovered as investigators began examining the wreckage.
The cause of the crash has not been announced. Witnesses described the area as being covered by cloud and mist, while Chisi spoke of poor visibility and challenging weather during the flight. President Mnangagwa’s spokesman, George Charamba, later said the weather was affecting air travel.
“The murky weather continues to pose challenges to air travel using anything but fixed-wing craft,” Charamba said.
Two days after the crash, Mnangagwa travelled by road to Mutare instead of using a helicopter or plane. He then made the journey back to Harare before visiting Chivayo’s home, where he declared the businessman a provincial hero. The decision meant that the state would meet the cost of the funeral.
Chivayo’s death has brought renewed attention to a businessman whose public life was marked by wealth, political access and highly publicised donations. Known widely as “Sir Wicknell”, he built a large following through photographs and videos showing luxury cars, cash gifts and meetings with influential people across Africa.
He was the founder of Intratrek Zimbabwe, a company involved in major energy projects. Its best-known undertaking was a long-delayed solar project in Gwanda, awarded by the state-owned power utility. The project became the subject of legal and political disputes before the government ordered it to proceed.
Chivayo also attracted attention through his connections to senior political figures. He was close to Mnangagwa and had appeared publicly with several African leaders. Kenyan President William Ruto described him as a friend and paid tribute to his energy and belief in Africa’s future after news of the crash.
His philanthropy was carefully documented on social media. He gave away luxury vehicles, cash and other gifts to musicians, churches, religious leaders and public figures. Cleopas H. Mukungunugwa, a social media commentator who said he managed Chivayo’s publicity and public relations, claimed that he was informed whenever Chivayo made a donation so the gesture could be publicised and used to build a positive public image.
Mukungunugwa has also spoken about the crash. In a video circulated online, he claimed that he contacted Information and Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister Tatenda Mavetera for an update. He claimed that the minister allegedly told him that the helicopter had “blown up mid-air”, or “yaputika irimudenga” in Shona.
Mavetera has not publicly confirmed that account. No official finding has said that the helicopter exploded in the air. The available preliminary information has instead focused on the impact, the fuel spill, the fire and the continuing examination of the black box and wreckage.
The comments have nevertheless added to the questions being asked by people close to Chivayo, particularly after Herbert described the destruction of the bodies as something the family had never seen before.
“Even by the accidents that we have seen, we have never seen such a thing,” Herbert said in Shona while addressing mourners.
The family now faces the task of burying the couple without allowing mourners to view their bodies. DNA specialists must complete the identification of the remains before final funeral arrangements can be made. Until then, relatives, friends and supporters are left waiting for a formal account of the crash and an explanation of why the two helicopters were separated, who was aboard each aircraft and what happened after the final radio exchange.
For the Chivayo family, the immediate concern is not the public debate but the recovery and identification of the dead. The decision to keep the coffins closed reflects the scale of the destruction at Kudenga Farm and the painful reality that the victims could not be returned to their families in a condition suitable for viewing.