…As professional diver dies while searching for a juvenile, and another 7 died at the same spot
Beatific Gumbwanda
CHIREDZI- End of March 2022 marks exactly one month after the Members of the Police Sub Aqua Unit failed to retrieve body of a three year old toddler who allegedly drowned at a Pool at Chilonga bridge while one of their members floated dead after spending approximately 24 hours under water, missing, while searching for the toddler, raising eyebrows of the rumored Mermaid at the pool below the low lying Chilonga bridge.
A Mermaid is an aquatic creature with the upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish and they mostly appear in folklore of many cultures worldwide including the African culture.
The low-lying Chilonga bridge, which came as a makeshift after the Chipinda bridge was swept away by Cyclone Eline in 2000, marking exactly two decades without any action by the central government, has been a death trap over the years in the rainy season, but people have never gone missing for such a number of days as the three year toddler with a professional diver from the Buchwa Police Sub Aqua Unit failing to make it in such a perceived small pool.
In an interview with Chief Chilonga born David Ben indicated that this year’s tragedy has become worse as compared to the past years, calling for a cleansing ceremony at the bridge.
“This is worse as compared to what we used to know over the past years. I think there is need for a cleansing ceremony, asking our ancestors on the way forward. Though people usually went missing, they were later found after a few days but the toddler is still missing to date,” said Chief Chilonga.
He said there has never been a pool at that point before the low-lying bridge was constructed and it developed after the bridge was constructed.
“There was never such a pool before the bridge was constructed. It was a little up the stream, where one farmer once used it to irrigate his tobacco. There is no longer a pool at that point and we now have it at the bridge,” said Chief Chilonga.
Recently, a veterinary officer was swept away while trying to cross the partially flooded low-lying Chilonga Bridge with his motorbike before he failed to swim out of the pool and later found the next day being feasted on by crocodiles.
Previously, a member of the Chilonga Chieftainship, Tiyani Lisenga survived death by a whisker while two people died and a toddler who is still missing, who some villagers thought was taken by a mermaid.
Lisenga was driving a Toyota Hilux with ten people from Chiredzi heading to Chilonga Township, where he persisted to cross through the flooded low-lying bridge before slipping into the pool.
“We now have many unanswered questions pertaining this season’s accidents and this bridge in particular. People are just dying unanimously and a little juvenile is still missing. We do not know whether is still alive or dead as we now suspect there is a mermaid in this pool,” said one villager.
A member of the Zimbabwe National Army was also found the following day after he slipped into the pool while trying to cross the bridge hanging at the back of the truck while Chikombedzi Mission Hospital administrator also allegedly suffered the same fate, though his death was a bit debatable.
Chief Chilonga later pleaded for government intervention through construction of a bridge, which might not come anytime soon as there is no economic intrinsic value.
