A former Zimbabwe Independent newspaper senior office worker in Bulawayo Peter Dube has died after being bitten by the world’s most venomous, dangerous, fastest and fatal snake, Black Mamba, in Gwanda in Matabeleland South province, as clinics and hospitals didn’t have antivenin.
Sources close to his family say Dube was bitten by a snake as he was trying to fetch mangoes from his orchard for visitors during the festive season.
As he reached for the mangoes, the snake struck him. He was rushed to the nearest clinic, but there was no antivenin.
From the clinic, he was rushed to a hospital, but still there was no antivenin there.
Minutes after that Dube died. Dube worked for years at the Zimbabwe Independent’s Bulawayo office, but lived in Esigodini, 40 southeast of Bulawayo during those years.
Black mambas, brown in colour, have coffin-shaped heads and are lithe, athletic snakes.
According to National Geographic, they can grow to be 14 feet long (4.25 metres), though their average length is around 8 feet (2.4m). They can live up to 11 years in the wild.
Black mambas are extremely dangerous, toxic and fast snakes; highly aggressive when threatened, known to strike repeatedly and to inject a deadly large volume of venom with each strike.
Their venom is lethal, and though antivenin exists, it is not widely available in Zimbabwe.
Newshawks
