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Raymond Jaravaza
ABOUT a year-and-a-half ago, 12-year-old Siphosami Tshuma’s life was cut short by the claws and brutal bites of a vicious lion in a village in Dete.
She woke up one early morning to prepare for school but had one task to perform before leaving home.
As she always did every morning, she had to light a fire in the kitchen hut for her elderly grandmother and cook porridge for her siblings before heading out to school.
But there was one slight problem that particular morning, the matches she was supposed to use to light the fire was finished and the quick-thinking girl decided to rush to the next homestead to ask for a burning piece of log.
The two homesteads are separated by a maize field with a tree line and thick shrubs at the ridges. That is where Siphosami met her fate.
She was waylaid by a marauding lion that had been hiding in the thick bushes between the two homesteads, according to her uncle, Justin Tshuma.
“Neighbours heard her screaming at the end of a maize field that separates our home from the nearest homestead. They rushed to find out what was happening and found her being attacked by a huge lion. They made a lot of noise to scare away the lion and it simply left her alone and walked off but she was badly injured and we organised a scotch cart to take her to the clinic,” said Justin.
The young girl had suffered severe injuries from the attack and passed away in an ambulance on the way to Hwange.
It’s an incident the villagers of Ward 15 in Magoli Dillage, Dete still remember vividly as cases of human-wildlife conflicts continue rising in areas close to the Hwange National Park.
Authorities, however, argue that villagers steal the fences that separate the National park from communities thereby making it easier for wild animals to stray into villages and attack domestic animals and humans.
Online Reporter