By TellZim ReporterMASVINGO – Masvingo Province has recorded a shocking 55 drowning cases during the 2025/26 rainy season, a figure that police have described as deeply worrying.Speaking during a provincial road safety campaign ahead of the 2026 Easter holiday, Assistant Commissioner Peter Sibanda warned residents not to take chances crossing flooded rivers, as heavy rains continue to pound the country.“One of the major problems that we are facing at the moment is people crossing flooded rivers. Since the beginning of the rainy season in November 2025 to March 2026, we have recorded 55 cases of people drowning. Most of them were taking chances and drowned,” said Ass Comm Sibanda. Ass Comm Sibanda reiterated the call for the public to avoid crossing rivers, even those they are accustomed to using.“Let us avoid crossing rivers, even if that is the usual place we used to cross. Others are being killed while poaching fish,” he said.He also cautioned the public against fishing in Crocodile infested Rivers, noting that the abundant rainfall this year had made waterways particularly dangerous.In March, the province recorded two separate drowning incidents involving a nurse and a teacher.Frank Siziba, a 64yearold male nurse from Mwenezi, went missing on March 6, 2026, after he was last seen in the Matibi area. His body was found 19 days later on March 25, 2026, trapped between tree roots along the Muchingwizi River. He was identified through his watch and the clothes he was wearing. Police and villagers conducted extensive searches along the riverbank before the body was recovered.In another incident, Mavengahama Maisiri, a teacher at Chibi High School in Chivi, was swept away by floods in the Bhuka area near Zvehuru shopping centre on March 15, 2026, while on his way home. In Zaka district, two men died after their makeshift canoe capsized in the Mutirikwi River downstream of Bangala Dam on March 12, 2026. Brighton Rugwevera and Cliff Chikara were swept away by strong currents. A third occupant, a pregnant woman, managed to survive by clinging to a tree trunk for several hours before she was rescued by the ZRP SubAqua Unit.Search teams, including police divers and local villagers, combed the river for days. The bodies of the two men were found on March 15, 2026, several kilometres downstream.Police have also appealed to motorists to exercise caution on the roads during the Easter and Independence holidays, warning that law enforcement agents will remain on duty throughout the period.
