Daredevil cycles into Epwortha��s Pool of Death

Obert Chifamba
In a little over six years, Victor Kazembe (28) has gone from just a�?the boy next doora�? to a daredevil who has performed stunts that have taken the tenets of masculinity -guts, strength, resolve – and amped them together to levels of absurdity and sportsmanship.

He has done everything -from training youngsters to swim, saving people from near-drowning situations to retrieving bodies from the floors of seemingly bottomless pools.

But it is his latest stunt that has left onlookers smitten with bated breaths and wiggling their tongues in sheer awe.

He rides his bicycle straight into the notorious Pool of Death situated in the high-density suburb of Epworth, hits the water in a riding position before disembarking and swimming to the surface with the bike in tow. What a stunt!

I caught up with this self-styled stuntman and asked him what gives him the guts to be so carefree with his life.

a�?I dona��t fear anything. I dona��t believe in evil spirits or their power over people. I go to church and whatever I do is guided by the presence of God so there you are; I will be protected from the word go,a�? said the soft spoken Kazembe whose stunts have since earned him the nickname a�?Ramboa�� after the famous American Hollywood star, Sylvester Stallone.

Rambo, as he is popularly known, started his romance with water in an equally dangerous spot -Kambuzuma Pool of Death – situated between the high-density suburbs of Kambuzuma and Warren Park. He was staying in Kambuzuma then. Today he resides in Tynwald North but has hinted at moving to Epworth where he will stay in the precincts of the Pool of Death.

After realising that he needed to be seriously involved with the water sport he joined athletes that trained at Les Brown Swimming Pool just behind Monomotapa Hotel in Harare where he was mentored by superintendents, Chris Mukambaidze and Jadson Jiga before another superintendent from Mbare, whom he only named as Mapanda, took over the reins of mentorship.

It was also at Les Brown that he was trained as a life-saver and eventually got a Zimbabwe Bronze Life Saving certificate in 2012. He did not end there. He further got training in scuba diving during which he learned the art of surviving underneath the water breathing out through the ears, armed with a diving kit.

a�?I can spend 128 seconds under the water without the aqua lungs, which we normally use for breathing when intending to stay for longer periods under the water. Ita��s quite an experience I tell you,a�? he added.

Ramboa��s life-saving antics were first put to the test one morning when he was out jogging in Kambuzuma when a woman attempted to commit suicide by jumping into a dam located behind Kambuzuma Section 1 before onlookers cried out for help, prompting him to abandon his jog and go on a rescue mission.

a�?I had to first get up a tree and dive from there so that I would strike the water at an angle that would allow me to get to her without any delays. I managed to get to her just in time before the water had snuffed the breath out of her and pulled her out for resuscitation.

a�?It was also at the same spot that I was to rescue a young boy who had gone to swim with his colleagues but wandered into deeper waters where the others could not go,a�? Rambo explained.

He added that in 2014 an adult male died in the dam in a case police suspected to be suicide and he was part of the team that retrieved his body from the water.

From the Epworth pool, Rambo has been involved in retrieving 11 corpses, something he admits has taken the a�?awea�� from the pool for him. He no longer sees the danger it poses to people, as he has now resorted to using the pool for recreational purposes – swimming and diving to kill time.

The pool is estimated to be more than 100 metres deep and has never dried up. Rumours are abound that some engineers tried to drain the water but the pool kept on filling so their efforts were futile.

At one point, Rambo also swam for more than 600 metres in the Pool of Death with his wrists handcuffed and only using his legs to propel him forwards or backwards.

a�?Such feats are simplicity itself to me. I am now planning to come and stay here so that I have ready access to the water every time without having to worry about travelling from Tynwald North. If I stay within the poola��s proximity, I can easily draw a training programme in which I will train willing people from the community to master the skill of swimming, diving and lifesaving,a�? he said coolly.

The a�?Pool of Deatha�� is said to be a product of quarrying activities that were done in the suburb in the early eighties and has been full of water since then. Residents from the suburb have resorted to drawing water from it for domestic purposes while children have always enjoyed playing in the shallow ends. It has become an oasis of water in a neighbourhood that has perennially suffered from water scarcity.

But it is the poola��s darker side that has seen it courting negative attention in recent years with hardly a month passing without the discovery of a dead body inside. This development has fuelled speculation that the pool is being used by murderers to dispose of people they would have killed while there are some people who have turned to it for suicide.

Some residents now attach a lot of mysticism to the pool while some even claim to have seen mermaids, which they believe are behind most of the drownings.

To Rambo, these are just myths that do not affect believers in the power of God.

a�?With God I will always go in there and do all activities I want and come out. I know many people fear for me when I do my stunts but they must remember that I dona��t use evil powers so there is nothing that will harm me,a�? bragged Rambo recently. -A� Zimpapers Syndication.