BULAWAYO – Two schoolboys drowned in Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park suburb on Wednesday while taking a swim in a pit originally dug for an underground fuel tank – but left open for years.
The tragedy took place at the site of a long-mooted plan to build a petrol station by Zanu PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu. Two fuel tanks were delivered, but they were never lowered into the ground and the pits have grown in size after taking in water.
The bodies of the two boys, whose ages could not be ascertained, were retrieved by a local resident after firefighters and police who attended the scene baulked.
Dozens of locals flocked to the scene as the two boys’ bodies lay covered under a red blanket.
An irate resident said: “The Bulawayo City Council and the Environmental Management Agency turned a blind eye to the open pits which have been there for a few years now. It’s clear negligence by the people who dug the pits, the local authority and EMA.”
