Boy, 3, killed by mate, 5, in playground

Temba Dube Senior Reporter
A THREE-YEAR-OLD boy died after being struck on the head by a wire while playing with a five-year-old lad from next door.
The five-year-old was playing with a wire, believed to have come from a mosquito net ring, when he accidentally caught little Ayanda, of Mpopoma.

The boy’s screams brought his aunt racing out of the house.

About five centimetres of the wire had penetrated the toddler’s skull.

Ayanda was rushed to Mpilo Hospital but died on Tuesday this week after nearly three weeks in hospital.

His grandfather, Judah Ncube, said from the family home in Mpopoma yesterday: “We’re not yet ready to talk about this painful issue.

We’ll call you after the burial.

“We’re still waiting for some relatives who are outside the country.”

Ayanda’s mother, Dorica Ncube, was too distraught to speak.

Next door, the family of the boy thought to have accidentally caught Ayanda, were equally pained.

The boy’s grandmother was weeping and his grandfather, Fortune Ndlovu, 58, appeared at a loss when a Chronicle newscrew visited.

Ndlovu said: “We don’t know what to do or say. We don’t have a comment for the media. We just need to find a way to talk to our neighbour about this. Indaba leyi isiqume amadolo (This thing has left us speechless and paralysed).”

Witnesses said the children were playing outside when Ayanda broke the calm with a “piercing scream”.

“One of his aunts rushed to the scene and found the child rolling on the ground,” said one of the neighbours.

“He had a circular piece of wire hanging from his head. We were told his five-year-old playmate hit him. His aunt pulled out the wire and neighbours rushed the baby to the clinic before he was later transferred to Mpilo Hospital.”

Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo said: “At the moment, this matter is being treated as a sudden death. If investigations reveal the five-year-old boy caused his playmate’s death, there would be no case because a child under seven years is not legally capable of committing a crime.”