News / National
2 school children drown at Masiye dam
20 Sep 2017 at 08:21hrs | Views
Two children from Cyrene High School have drowned at Masiye dam in Matopo National Park this Tuesday after a canoe they were travelling in capsized.
The children, one a form one and another a form five student could not be named as their next of keen had not been notified.
Matabeleland South police spokesperson Inspector Philisani Ndebele said he could not give details of the incident at the time of going to broadcast as he was waiting to be appraised of the circumstances surrounding the incident from Plumtree police station.
According to an eyewitness who could not be named for professional reasons, the children who had gone for camping yesterday evening were given a chance to scout around Masiye Camp for familiarisation exercise when seven of them saw an idle canoe at the dam shore.
The eyewitness said the school children were then tempted to board the canoe without an instructor as per the protocol of the camp.
He said the canoe then capsized with the other five students swimming to safety while the two who allegedly could not swim, drowned.
The eyewitness further said the surviving students then alerted the camp instructors who came to pull out the drowned students when it was already too late.
When the ZBC News crew arrived at Masiye Camp, some students from Cyrene High School were still milling around the camp with their bags packed waiting for transport to ferry them to their school amid indications that they had cut short their three day camp which was supposed to end this tomorrow after the unfortunate incident.
The bodies of the deceased students had reportedly been taken to a mortuary at a hospital in Bulawayo.
The children, one a form one and another a form five student could not be named as their next of keen had not been notified.
Matabeleland South police spokesperson Inspector Philisani Ndebele said he could not give details of the incident at the time of going to broadcast as he was waiting to be appraised of the circumstances surrounding the incident from Plumtree police station.
According to an eyewitness who could not be named for professional reasons, the children who had gone for camping yesterday evening were given a chance to scout around Masiye Camp for familiarisation exercise when seven of them saw an idle canoe at the dam shore.
The eyewitness said the school children were then tempted to board the canoe without an instructor as per the protocol of the camp.
He said the canoe then capsized with the other five students swimming to safety while the two who allegedly could not swim, drowned.
The eyewitness further said the surviving students then alerted the camp instructors who came to pull out the drowned students when it was already too late.
When the ZBC News crew arrived at Masiye Camp, some students from Cyrene High School were still milling around the camp with their bags packed waiting for transport to ferry them to their school amid indications that they had cut short their three day camp which was supposed to end this tomorrow after the unfortunate incident.
The bodies of the deceased students had reportedly been taken to a mortuary at a hospital in Bulawayo.
Source - zbc
