A 13-YEAR-OLD Seke teenager died after being buried alive by sand which he was illegally abstracting from the Nyatsime River bank.
BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA
According to an Environmental Management Agency (EMA) Mashonaland East province report shown to NewsDay, the now-deceased, identified as Munashe Maphosa, who was doing Grade Six at Kudyarawanza Primary School, was poaching sand with his elder brother on November 12 when tragedy struck.
“The agency received a report on the tragic death of a 13-year-old boy, Munashe Maphosa, after being buried by sand which he was illegally abstracting close to Nyatsime River. The boy had been staying with his paternal grandfather and grandmother.
“The boy, together with his elder brother, went out to do sand mining 3,5km away from their homestead along Nyatsime River.
The elder brother left the younger brother mining sand while he had gone to wash his face in the river around 7am. When the elder brother returned, he could not locate his brother and realised that the overburden had collapsed and buried him. His body was retrieved later and buried,” the EMA report read.
In a separate incident, a 38-year-old Marondera woman’s decomposing body was discovered in her hut in a case of suspected suicide.
Ethel Zinyuku, of Igava, is suspected to have locked herself in her hut before gulping poison for unknown reasons.
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It is reported that villagers became worried about Zinyuku’s whereabouts after realising that she had not been seen in public for days. It is reported that one of the villagers called her on her mobile phone for days, but it went answered.
On November 26, the villagers teamed up and went to her homestead where upon arrival they were greeted by a strong stench emanating from her hut. They broke into the hut and discovered Zinyuku’s body in an advanced state of decomposition.
The villagers also discovered a bottle of poison lying beside her body. The matter was reported to the police, who then conveyed the deceased’s body to Marondera Provincial Hospital mortuary for post-mortem.
Efforts to get a comment from police in Mashonaland East were fruitless yesterday.
