Student crushed to death

H-Metro Reporter
An electrician at Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company’s Msasa plant in Harare, has appeared in court on allegations of causing the death of an apprentice when he switched on a machine the student was still working on.
The deceased, a third year student died on April 22 moments after he was crushed by a rotary machine.

The electrician, Brian Kunaka, appeared at the Harare Magistrates Court charged with culpable homicide.

He was not asked to plead to the charges when he appeared before magistrate, Mrs Yeukai Dzuda, who remanded him to July 7 for routine further remand.

 

The State alleged that Kunaka’s actions can be considered unreasonable even though they were not intended.

Prosecuting, the State alleged that on April 22 at around 3pm, Kunaka was at ZFC Msasa, where he is employed as an electrician and was in charge of the switchboard room, where all machines in the plant are powered.

Kunaka then allegedly switched on a screen rotary machine that the late Godfrey Chipoyera, who was a third year apprenticeship student, was still working on, resulting in him being crushed to death.

The allegations are that Kunaka failed to take precautions by physically checking if anyone was still working on the machine before switching it on.