BY GARIKAI MAFIRAKUREVA
An extension of the cane-cutting season in the hope of reducing a backlog ahead of the annual shutdown for the sugar-processing industry turned tragic when a contracted worker at the Hippo Valley Estates drowned in a water canal last Friday.
Tongaat Hullets sugar milling is traditionally shutdown from mid-December to March, but the period was extended in order to accommodate late harvesting.
Masvingo provincial police spokesperson, Chief Inspector Charity Mazula confirmed the tragedy, saying Elphas Sengamayi drowned in a water canal near Kyle School in Triangle.
She said Sengemayi was one of the cane cutters on a shuttle stay at Kyle Primary School and, on the fateful day, Gift Mahaso and the deceased went out take a bath at the canal close to the school.
“However, according to Samuel Zimhunga, who was also part of the cane cutters, the two had a misunderstanding leading to a scuffle resulting in Mahaso trying to push Sengamayi into the canal, but they both ended up falling into the canal,” she said.
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Mahoso is said to have swam while screaming for help and was rescued by two other cane cutters from Hippo Valley Estates section 8. He only sustained a few bruises on his toes.
The rescuers, however, failed to immediately locate Sengamayi whose body was swept by the undercurrent and was later retrieved some 1 200 metres away from the scene.
The matter was reported at ZRP Triangle who treated it as murder and Mahaso was immediately arrested and is set to appear before a Chiredzi magistrate today.