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Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
A sombre atmosphere engulfed Emakhandeni suburb near Thembiso Primary School yesterday morning as residents woke up to find a man’s body dumped in a trench flowing sewage at one of the houses.
The body is said to have been discovered by passersby at about 6am who alerted the owner of the house.
The deceased who is from Emakhandeni was identified by his mother Ms Ronica Nyoni (68) as Dabson Chirwa believed to have been in his early 30s.
Ms Nyoni said she last saw Dabson, who was her last-born child on Friday morning.
“On Friday morning I went out for my prayers and left him sleeping. When I returned around 8am he was gone, he had folded his blankets and put them at their usual place. I cleaned the house and left for the fields where I was harvesting maize. I later returned when it started raining,” she said.
Dabson’s friend only named as Sitshela came to the house intending to get him a piece job and was told he had left in the morning and had not returned yet. Ms Nyoni said her son was not formally employed and would do odd jobs for people and she assumed he had gone for one when he spent the day away.
“I cooked supper and we ate with his other brother and we assumed he would return later in the evening as usual. We then went to sleep and he had not returned. But he was a person who always sleeps at home no matter how drunk he was. He would return home but yesterday (Friday) he did not and we got worried,” she said weeping.
Yesterday morning, Ms Nyoni said she was about to do some laundry when someone told her where her son was.
“I woke up intending to do laundry and as I was outside setting up, a fellow resident said to me I must go and check on my son as he had fallen into a trench near Thembiso. I then woke up my other son so that we could go together. When we got to the scene, we found a large crowd gathered outside a house and I peeped inside and saw that it was him, already dead,” she said sobbing.
The half-naked body of Dabson was lying face-up in a trench with flowing sewage. He had no shoes.
Ms Nyoni used the blanket intended to cover herself to cover her son’s body until it was collected by the police.
Mrs Sithembile Mlilo, the owner of the house where the body was found was at a loss for words questioning why he was dumped close to her gate. Mrs Mlilo said she did not hear any noise at night.
“I never heard any noises last night to indicate a scuffle. I wonder what really happened. I just wonder why they had to do such a thing at my house,” she said.
However, word around the suburb is that Dabson had been paid on Friday evening for a construction job he did with his friends and there is suspicion that he was robbed and killed for that money. – @NyembeziMu.
Online Reporter