12-year-old drowns in city pool

Patient Sibanda Chronicle Reporter
A 12-YEAR-OLD girl from Makokoba suburb in Bulawayo has drowned in the city’s Municipal swimming pool. The incident happened last Sunday when the girl was swimming with her friends.

The pool, popularly known as Barrow, is located along Samuel Parirenyatwa Street. The girl, who was identified as Mercy Mkandawire by her relatives, was a grade 7 pupil at Lobengula primary school in Mzilikazi suburb.

She was buried at West Park cemetery on Thursday. When Chronicle visited the late pupil’s guardian’s home in Makokoba on Thursday, relatives and neighbours were still in shock over the girl’s death.

The girl’s grandfather, Maduna Mkandawire, who said he was her guardian, told The Chronicle how Mercy lost her life in company of five other children.“She left home without our permission. She went with five other children. We only heard about her sudden death when police came to my house and told us that my grandchild had died. They were with other children,” said Mkandawire. The family said they blame the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) for not draining water in the pool following its closure last year. Mkandawirie said the Municipal pool supervisor told them that the children had been denied access but insisted on getting into the pool.“They told us that the children went unnoticed into the pool after security denied them entrance. The city council should have considered draining water to prevent such incidents,” he said.Another family member only identified as Masuku said the BCC should consider taking serious security measures to prevent such incidents. “We blame the BCC for not having serious security measures. They should have drained water long back. They should consider improving their security in future to save our children. They said they closed the pool last year but I wonder why they did not drain water from the pool?” said a family member who only identified himself as Masuku.“We thank God that other children did not jump into the pool when they saw that their sister had disappeared. We could have lost all of them,” he added.

Bulawayo Metropolitan Province police spokesperson Inspector Precious Simango confirmed the incident. “I confirm that we received a report of sudden death by drowning which happened at the city centre’s swimming pool where a juvenile aged 12 drowned after gaining entry into a swimming pool through a damaged fence,” she said.Insp Simango urged parents not to let their children go into swimming pools unsupervised.