Parents beat son to death over drugs

An 18 year old Form 5 Nyameni High School was found dead at his family yard hours after allegedly having been hit by his parents on suspicion of drug abuse.

The child Ashley Tanyaradzwa Mukwirimba of Ruvimbo Park in Marondera is said to have collapsed in the school hall and fainted.

His friend and fellow pupil together with another student took him outside the gate where they called his mother Mrs Nancy Mukwirimba and told her of his condition.

Upon arriving at the school, the boy's mother found her son still unconscious and picked information from an unidentified source that he had consumed an unknown drug.

She hired a taxi and passed through Dombotombo police where she requested the Officer-In-Charge to discipline her son but was told to take him to hospital and bring him the next day for further investigations.

She then called her husband who was in Mrewa about what had transpired.

The father James Mukwirimba came home that night and interrogated his son on what had transpired but failed to get a satisfactory answer.

He then took a switch from a peach tree and hit him seven times on the back.

The mother took the same switch and hit him three times.

However, before the parents retired to bed the boy complained of feeling hot.

The boy was found dead in the family yard by his mother the next morning.

The parents have since been arrested and are assisting police with investigations.

Investigations carried out have also established that the boy had a history of drug abuse.

Nyameni High School has a history of drug abuse cases with another pupil having been hospitalised last year after consuming a weed cake brought by friends to school.