Lisa Mlambo
Two Javas Day Care preschool pupils aged three and four died after the owner of the school who had been transporting them forgot and locked them inside her Honda CRV vehicle trunk for approximately three hours.
Masvingo Provincial Police Spokesperson Kudakwashe Dhewa confirmed the incident saying they had received the report of the incident.
Sources privy to the incident said the Pre-school owner Zhuwakina Javangwe (53) from Westwood in Chiredzi was transporting the kids with her vehicle when she forgot them in the car trunk for nearly four hours.
It is reported that around 6:30 am, Javangwe allegedly took the first trip to the day care centre with eight pupils and dropped them off.
On the second trip, she took 10 pupils and four, two boys and two girls were put in the back trunk. When she dropped them off, only six came out and the other four at the back remained inside.
She went for the third trip around 7:30am, where she took eight more kids with the four still in the trunk.
She arrived at the school and dropped the eight with the four still in the trunk. She then locked the door and went for lessons only to return around 1000hours with the intention to clean the vehicle.
“When she came back around 1000hours, she heard some noise from the car and when she opened the doors she saw two pupils seated on the car seats and they then told her that the other two were in trunk,”
“She opened the boot only to find the lifeless bodies of Celine Shiri (4) and Linet Musungate(3), she took them out and laid them on the verandah where she tried to resuscitate them through some First Aid practices but failed,” said the source privy to the incident.
The matter was later reported to the police and their bodies taken to Chiredzi General Hospital for postmortem.
