Form One Pupil Electrocuted While Fetching Lemons To Season His Porridge

In a tragic incident, a Bulawayo form one pupil who wanted to fetch lemons from a tree to season mealie-meal porridge died yesterday after he was electrocuted by overhead power cables.

According to the Chronicle, Prince Mafu of Emakhandeni suburb died instantly and was stuck on a mango tree until personnel from ZESA switched off power for him to be brought down.  The mango tree that he had climbed is next to a lemon tree and both are directly under a power line. 

Narrating the sad incident, Mafu’s family said,

“We literally saw him getting burnt to death. The electricity consumed him while we watched. We were helpless. We could not do anything. He was too high up in the trees and neighbours called for ambulances and police but it was too late. 

“The long wire he was using was not stable.  It was going back and forth and the ripe lemons are now higher up the tree. So he climbed a mango tree which grows next to the lemon tree and got to the top. Somehow he failed to control the wire and it came into contact with the power cables. There is a transformer outside our yard,” said Mrs Sithokozile Mbele, his grandmother. 

Neighbours described Prince as an obedient child who respected the elderly in his community. 

This is a tragedy for the whole community as Prince was everyone’s child. Children nowadays are problematic but as a boy we watched him help his grandmother with cleaning duties such as mopping and polishing floors, laundry and most of all gardening. He loved to tend his garden,” said a neighbour who identified himself as Mr Moyo. 

-Chronicle