Five-year-old drowns in disused mine pit as mom pans for gold

Fungai Lupande

Mashonaland Central Bureau

A five-year-old boy from Zvitokwe Village in Shamva drowned on November 11 at around 3 pm while swimming in a disused open-cast mine pit near Musambanyama River.

The pit is approximately 50cm deep.

Provincial police spokesperson, Sergeant Major Samuel Chikasha said the boy was identified as Matinyasha Kachavhe.

Matinyasha was swimming with his two friends who are also both five years old and from the same village.

At the time of the incident, Matinyasha’s mother Dadirai Mapiki and grandmother Irene Kwenda were panning for gold nearby.

When Matinyasha drowned, his friends ran away without informing the adults.

As the area became quiet, the women assumed that the children had gone home.

An hour later, Iron Kaunda informed Matinyasha’s mother that he had overheard two boys discussing the drowning incident.

Villagers went to the pit to investigate and retrieved the boy’s body.