BULAWAYO – A 35-year-old man was rescued after climbing the roof of Bulawayo’s tallest building before threatening to jump off.
Andrew Banda of Balfour Road in Bellevue was pulled back from the roof of the 110-meter high (360ft) National Railways of Zimbabwe building by fire fighters on Friday.
Dozens of people watched the drama unfold from the street below.
Chief Inspector Precious Simango of Bulawayo police said Banda was attempting to commit suicide.
“Security guards at the building alerted the Fire Brigade and they managed to rescue him. Police arrived at the scene after Banda had already been sent to the hospital,” Simango said.
Sources said Banda is an employee of the NRZ and had complained that his salary was “not enough to buy anything.”
The 23-floors NRZ building at the corner of Fife Street and 9th Avenue opened in 1985, becoming the tallest building in Zimbabwe. It lost that first ranking when the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe building, which stands at 120 meters high with 28 floors, was completed in 1997.
