Friday 4 September 2020 will certainly go down memory lane as one of the darkest days for the Mthethwa family in Nyamandlovu, Matabeleland North Province.
On this day, a suspected bomb explosion in Majindane Village Three, claimed the lives of two Mthethwa siblings, Happiness (13) and Thabiso (5).
The incident has left the entire village in a state of inexplicable shock and fear.According to national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi, a suspected ‘bomb’ which exploded at the Mthethwa homestead killed the duo, who were washing dishes when tragedy struck.
“At around 11am yesterday (Friday), Happiness Mthethwa aged 13 and Thabiso Mthethwa aged five were washing dishes at their homestead in Nyamandlovu, Majindane Village while their father Mr Thembani Mthethwa was inside the house when he suddenly heard a huge explosion,” he said.
Assistant Commissioner Nyathi said when the father ran outside to check what had happened, he found his children lying on the ground with severe injuries.“The young boy was thrown some three metres from the point of explosion while the girl was five metres away. The lid of the pot and the pot she was washing was found metres away from the scene,” said Asst Comm Nyathi.
He further revealed that the bodies of the two were taken to United Bulawayo Hospitals for a post-mortem and also added that police and the Zimbabwe National Army engineers have been dispatched to the area to conduct further investigations.
“We also do not want to speculate on what it was and we want to wait for investigations to be completed because this is a sad incident. We want to find out what really happened. So far indications are that there was nothing sinister in terms of objects that were found at the homestead, but after full scale investigations we will be able to pinpoint what exactly happened”.
A source who spoke to the state media said Majindane villagers were still in a state of shock following the incident.
“Everyone is shocked, the whole community could not stomach seeing the children lying dead with some body parts severed from their bodies,” said the source, who hails from the village.
To show that the blast was strong, the villager said, one of the pots that the deceased siblings were washing was found several meters away.
state media
Additional Reporting: Zwnews
