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Raymond Jaravaza – [email protected]

RESIDENTS of New Lobengula suburb in Bulawayo gathered early Wednesday morning to resume their search for a missing three-year-old boy who had been swept away by rainwater on Tuesday afternoon.
After an hour of combing through overgrown grass, prodding the stream with sticks, and inspecting stagnant water pools, a gruesome discovery was made. Under a thicket of vegetation, a resident spotted a small leg protruding from the bushes and immediately alerted the search party.

The boy’s lifeless body was found a short distance from where he was last seen, hours after he had gone missing while in the company of his eight-year-old brother. A group of about nine men carefully retrieved the body, while news of the tragic discovery spread through the suburb.

Police were called to the scene and later transported the body to Mpilo Central Hospital for a post-mortem examination.

“We abandoned the search last night around 10 PM as it was too dark to continue. As early as 6 am this morning, we resumed our efforts. We agreed that the child’s body couldn’t have been carried too far by the water, so we focused our search within a confined area,” said Mr Love Dube, a resident and member of the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association.

Another resident, Mr John Oka, said the body was discovered near the confluence of two small streams before the water flowed into a large storm drain pipe.

“We feared that he might have been carried into the massive storm drain pipe under Luveve Road, but it seems his body was trapped in thick vegetation along the stream’s banks,” said Mr Oka.
Residents said the tragic incident started when the young boy and his older brother had been sent to a local tuck shop by their mother. When heavy rains began to fall, they sought shelter.
“However, on their way home, the younger child was swept away by the sudden flash floods. His older brother rushed home to alert their mother, prompting residents to launch an urgent search operation,” said a resident.