adminElizabeth Tsuro Midlands Reporter
A GWERU teenager died after he drowned while swimming in a shallow dam as his friend watched helplessly. Simbarashe Kadongore, 18, of Virginia Valley Farm located on the outskirts of Gweru drowned on Saturday at around 10AM.
Members of the police sub-aqua unit were last night still searching for the body.
A grief-stricken Levi Kadongore, father to the deceased, told The Chronicle that he quickly mobilised other villagers the moment he realised that his son had drowned.
“When my son drowned, we mobilised my other colleagues to search for him in the dam but our efforts were in vain. I then called the police sub-aqua unit from Buchwa who later came today and searched for Simbarashe’s body for about 12 hours but they couldn’t find him,” he said. “We’re just hoping that we will find his body. The police sub-aqua unit advised us that his body might float after a day or two.”
Kadongore said Simbarashe, who was in the company of his friend, decided to go and harvest honey from a beehive which was close to the dam.
He then decided to take a swim first to cool his body from the blistering temperatures but his friend went instead to a nearby bush to relieve himself.
When Simbarashe’s friend returned he noticed a hand waving in the dam and realised that his friend was drowning, Kadongore said.
He then alerted Simbarashe’s mother and other workers at the farm who then searched for him to no avail.
Efforts to get a comment from police were futile as Midlands Police Spokesperson Inspector Joel Goko’s mobile was unreachable.
Online Reporter