Boy (14) drowns in Gwanda

Richard Muponde, Gwanda Correspondent
A 14-YEAR-OLD boy drowned last weekend in Lumene River in Gwanda District, Matabeleland South when he lost grip of a plastic container he was using to swim after the currency of the river increased due to rains that had fallen upstream.

The boy who has been identified as Khayelitsha Siziba drowned while in the company of two of his friends from Nyandeni Village near Stanmore, about seven kilometres from the Bulawayo-Beitbridge highway.

His body was retrieved last Sunday, 24 hours after he had drowned. Matabeleland South police spokesperson Inspector Philisani Ndebele on Thursday confirmed the incident.

“The incident happened on 4 February at around 3pm. The boy was in the company of his friends from the same village and decided to go to the river. While there, they decided to swim. He was using a five-litre plastic container to navigate the waters.

However, suddenly the currency of the river flow increased and he lost grip of the container and drowned,” he said.

Insp Ndebele said the friends rushed to inform villagers who rushed to search for the body but did not find it before making a police report.

“A team from our sub-aqua unit was dispatched from Bulawayo and the body was retrieved on Sunday around 4pm. It is at Gwanda Provincial Hospital mortuary. We want to appeal to members of the public to desist from getting into water bodies during the rainy season as many lives have been lost,” he said.

The incident comes barely a week after a gold panner drowned in Collen Bawn after a mining shaft he and his colleagues were working in was flooded by water. Five of his colleagues escaped death by a whisker. His body was trapped in the flooded shaft until it was retrieved by the police. Insp Ndebele identified the deceased as Mgcini Ndlovu (21) of Garanyemba area.

Floods continue to wreak havoc in Gwanda area. In West Nicholson 17 people were stranded on Tuesday and Wednesday last week when Mbembesi and Umzingwane rivers burst their banks. They were later rescued by a helicopter dispatched from Bulawayo. Some of the villagers endured Tuesday night marooned on tree tops until help came the next day.

@richardmuponde