By Tatenda Sibanda
Four young children were swept away by raging waters while they were sleeping, as members of the Masowe sect in Gokwe sought shelter under a bridge as torrential rains pounded the area, defying logic and reason.
The incident happened in Gokwe at Tare Bridge around 3:30 am on February 15 and all the deceased persons were four years of age and below.
Midlands Province police spokesperson Inspector Emmanuel Mahoko confirmed that the three bodies of the infants were retrieved along the riverbank, while the fourth body belonging to a nine-months-old baby was found in another stream where it had been swept away.
“The victims have been identified as Beauty Mavhiringani (nine months); a boy, Devine Muvhiringani (4) all from Kamba Village, Pamela Natare, a one-year-nine-month-old girl from Tsive Village and Effort Shava, a three-year-old boy from Mudzimiri Village,” said Mahoko.
The incident occurred around 3:30am when a congregation of about 20 people from the Masowe Apostolic Church sect were praying near Tare Bridge along the Gokwe-Siabuwa road.
When it started raining, the congregants sought shelter under the bridge.
They then fell asleep while the rains were pouring upstream. A wave of floods came and swept them away.
They woke up in the floods and all their belongings including the minor children were swept away and three were found downstream while the fourth one was found in another river.
In a separate incident that happened on the same day, Inspector Mahoko confirmed the drowning of two minors who died while picking Nyii (bird plum) wild fruits at an abandoned home in a disused fishpond.
“The Zimbabwe Republic Police confirms a case of sudden death by drowning where two children drowned in a disused pond in Mberengwa. We urged members of the public to educate their children on the dangers of playing near water bodies especially during the rainy season,” he said.
Circumstances are that the two minors, a nine-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy were picking Nyii when some of the fruits fell into the water and in their attempt to retrieve them, they dived into the pond and failed to make it out alive.
