Chronicle Editor
Yoliswa Dube-Moyo, Feature
IT has been barely a year since Thando Mathe (17) and her family buried her 11-year-old brother after he drowned in Colleen Bawn Dam that three other males have also drowned on the same water body.
The boy, who was in Grade 6 at Colleen Bawn Primary School at the time, was in the company of his three friends when tragedy struck.
Many stories have been told about how Bongani drowned but the one that shocks many is that his friends pushed him into the dam while they were playing and he failed to swim back to the surface.
Upon realising that Bongani was struggling to swim back up, the boys are said to have alerted residents at the nearby Khayelitsha township, which is located near the dam.
However, when they arrived, it was a minute too late.
What many of the residents still have not forgotten is how they failed to pull Bongani’s body out of the dam as they said anyone who touched it felt an electric shock.
A prophet had to be called in to help retrieve the body after three days of trying with no luck.
Bongani was in Thando’s care when the incident happened and she had to break the news to her parents who lived in rural Garanyemba at the time.
“My parents live in the rural areas so it was just the two of us living at our house in Khayelitsha.
We were both going to school and I was taking care of my little brother.
“He was out playing as he normally does and when I heard that someone had drowned at the dam, I didn’t think it could be my little brother,” said Thando.
She said she felt numb and was in shock as she watched helplessly while rescuers tried to retrieve her brother’s body.
“Police later attended the scene but this was after the prophet called in by one of the residents had come to assist.
They said Bongani’s body was ‘discharging electricity’ and they couldn’t touch it.
“Up to now, I still don’t understand what was happening.
My parents still struggle to talk about Bongani because his death was just so sudden,” said Thando.
Colleen Bawn Dam supplies water to the mining area but locals say every year, several mysterious drownings of young boys are recorded at the dam.
Many think the water body is being used for ritual purposes to get rich picking while mining for gold.
Others believe the dam harbours mermaids, which are thirsty for young male blood.
“Some say otsheketsha (small scale gold miners) use the dam for ritual purposes in order to strike it rich.
It is said that they throw fish into the dam and when someone who has ‘good blood’ and is lucky visits the dam, they’re drawn into the dam by that fish.
“The owners of the fish will then harvest the blood of the deceased and conduct their rituals,” said Ms Nombuso Moyo from Khayelitsha.
She continued: “This is why we have been seeing all these unexplainable drownings.
It is also baffling how girls play near the dam but we never hear of any of them drowning.
It’s only boys that drown in that dam.”
Many myths are alive among locals with some attributing the drownings to suspected mermaid presence.
“There was a time when the water levels at the dam were low and a huge fish was said to have sprung up to the surface.
The fish then disappeared shortly after and there was a violent whirlwind that followed,” said Mr Lazarus Tshuma, another local.
He said many were living in fear that one day, it would be their son who would be swallowed by the dam.
“We try by all means to make sure that our children don’t play near the dam but you know how children can be.
It is sometimes difficult to control them,” said Mr Tshuma.
In the latest incident, Mthabisi Ncube (19) drowned in the dam, again, under unclear circumstances.
Matabeleland South provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Loveness Mangena, confirmed the incident which occurred two weeks ago.
“Circumstances are that on June 23 at around 9AM, Mthabisi Ncube from Maduna area in the Filabusi was washing his clothes at the dam site in the company of Thabiso Ncube (23) also of Filabusi.
The now deceased Mthabisi then sent Thabiso to go and buy some drinks from nearby shops,” said Insp Mangena.
She said when Thabiso returned with the drinks, he could not locate the deceased.
“There were some marks, which indicated that he might have fallen into the dam.
He ran to the nearby compound and reported what had happened, leading to the formation of a search team, which also reported the case to the police,” said Insp Mangena.
The body was retrieved by the Bulawayo Fairbridge sub-aqua unit the following day.
Weighing in on the drownings at Colleen Bawn Dam, traditional healer Mr David Mhabhinyana Ngwenya said it was not a matter of mermaid presence but pure witchcraft.
“Mermaids are not found in small dams.
If there were to be one, it would be found in a dam like Kariba, not these small dams.
What’s going on here is a case of witchcraft where people place their snakes to be sucking blood from the bodies of the drowning victims,” said Mr Ngwenya.
He said no natural death would result in the body giving off electrical currents.
“When a child drowns in a dam, that dam is now cursed because they’ll be a snake that wants to finish all the people in the area.
It’s similar to Vungu River in Gweru.
The water remains at a constant level and you find that a lot of accidents happen around that area.
“Some phenomena are difficult to understand but what’s needed is a cleansing ceremony to be conducted at that place,” said Mr Ngwenya.
He said some years ago, a group of traditional healers sought clearance to conduct a cleansing ceremony in Gweru and Gwanda to minimise or eliminate such mysterious accidents and deaths.
“Unfortunately, the response was not favourable.
A lot of people don’t take what we traditional leaders tell them seriously,” said Mr Ngwenya.
He called on chiefs as the custodians of culture in communities to make efforts to address such situations.
“Chiefs must take charge because they are the custodians of our culture and tradition.” – @Yolisswa.
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