City of Masvingo (Cemeteries) By-laws, 2025
Masvingo burial fees are set at US$15 for an adult resident in the lawn cemetery, US$20 for non-residents and US$80 for non-Zimbabweans, with US$100 fines for unauthorised burial, exhumation, or putting more than two bodies in a grave.
These by-laws govern burials in the City of Masvingo's cemeteries: permission for burial, reservation of graves, exclusive rights of burial, burial times, depth of graves, exhumation, memorial works, buildings in cemeteries and public access hours.
Burial fees differ by cemetery and by the status of the deceased. In the lawn cemetery an adult burial costs US$15 on weekdays and at weekends and public holidays alike, US$20 for non-residents and US$80 for non-Zimbabweans; a child's burial costs US$10, or US$40 for non-Zimbabweans. At Mangwandi or Cambria cemetery an adult burial costs US$10, US$15 for non-residents and US$80 for non-Zimbabweans, with children at US$5, US$10 and US$40 respectively.
Other charges apply across all cemeteries: US$10 to search for a grave, US$20 to apply to install a tombstone, US$60 to reserve a grave and the same to renew the reservation, US$15 a year for a reserved grave, and US$20 to apply to erect memorial works. Grave panels and lined graves are charged at cost recovery, while applications for an exclusive right of burial, for special burial times and for exhumation carry no fee.
The heavier penalties are US$100 each for burying a body or ashes without authority, placing more than two bodies in one grave, removing a body or coffin from a grave, exhuming without approval, erecting a building in a cemetery without consent, and obstructing a designated officer. Lesser penalties cover unauthorised entry, entering other than through designated points, stone dressing, distributing advertising, planting a tree on a grave and bringing a vehicle in without authority (US$20 each), using cemetery roads to convey goods (US$10), and standing or climbing on memorials or placing unapproved floral tributes in the memorial garden (US$5).
All amounts are payable in local currency at the prevailing interbank rate.
What changed
- Adult burial in the lawn cemetery costs US$15 for residents, US$20 for non-residents and US$80 for non-Zimbabweans
- Mangwandi or Cambria cemetery charges US$10, US$15 and US$80 for adults, with children at US$5 to US$40
- Grave reservation costs US$60 with a US$15 annual fee; grave searching US$10 and tombstone application US$20
- Unauthorised burial, exhumation, removing a body, more than two bodies in a grave, and building in a cemetery each carry US$100
- Minor offences from US$5 to US$20, payable in local currency at the interbank rate
Who this affects
- Bereaved families arranging burials in Masvingo
- Funeral parlours and undertakers
- Monumental masons installing tombstones
- Diaspora families repatriating remains, who pay the non-Zimbabwean rate
Plain-language summary — not legal advice. Always read the full instrument.