adminSukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
A FISHING expedition ended in tragedy when a 61-year-old Mangwe man was found dead on the following morning near a dam, and his wife suspects foul play.
Wilson Phiri was fishing at Kariba Dam in Kwite area in the middle of the night in the company of his 13-year-old son and 20-year-old neighbour.
He started complaining that he was feeling cold and later fell into the dam and drowned.
His wife Otilia Ncube said the incident occurred on Tuesday night. She said her 13-year-old son returned home immediately afterwards but did not report the incident.
She said she suspects foul play as her husband had been recently assaulted and left for dead by unidentified assailants.
“My husband was a fisherman and he sustained the family through selling fish.
“He went to fish on Tuesday evening in the company of a neighbour and our son but he didn’t return,” she said.
“My son came home alone and he told me that his father was still catching fish at the dam. I then assumed that he would spend the night at the dam because that’s what he does on some occasions.”
She said she became worried after her husband did not return home on the following morning and decided to follow him.
She said she saw her husband’s clothes on a river bank, but they could not locate him nearby.
She said they searched for him and found his body 50 metres away from the dam. Ncube said her husband was naked and his body was covered in mud.
“He was lying facing upwards just out of the water and he was covered in mud. I tried to question my son and our neighbour and they said they left him lying there,” she said.
“They said he got into the water half naked and then cast his net. They said he started complaining of the cold and that he could not move and he fell into the water. They also explained that they later pulled him out of the water and they removed his undergarments in a bid to resuscitate him but he was unresponsive.”
Matabeleland South acting provincial police spokesperson Sergeant Thabani Mkhwananzi said he had not received a report on the matter.
Online Reporter