BY PRAISEMORE SITHOLE
ABANDONED pits found in most of Bulawayo’s high-density suburbs are proving to be a serious hazard as the number of drowning cases keep escalating.
Sand poachers are accused of leaving dangerous pits after launching relentless and sustained attacks on the environment, destroying thousands of acres of land, digging pit and river sand for sale.
Pit and river sand are critical materials in the construction industry and have become a fast-selling commodity in light of the heightened construction activity in the city.
As such, sand poachers, armed with picks, shovels and all sorts of earth-moving artillery, can be seen travelling in ramshackle trucks that are hardly roadworthy.
They have become a constant feature in high-density suburbs, where their operations have left a trail of un-rehabilitated pits.
Not only are the abandoned pits an environmental eyesore, but they have also become a serious danger to lives of people, particularly children, during the rainy season.
On February 13 at around 7:00pm two men, identified as Shane Ngona (20) and Nqobizitha Mhlanga (18), both from Pumula North suburb, drowned while taking a bath in one of the pits.
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Three days later, a 15-year-old Pelandaba West boy drowned in an abandoned pit, sparking fury from Bulawayo residents.
In December, a 12-year-old girl drowned while swimming in a pit in Pumula high-density suburb in the same pits.
The pits are scattered all over Bulawayo including in Luveve, Pumula East, Mpopoma, Pelandaba West, Nkulumane, Cowdray Park, Matshobana and Entumbane.
In 2019 the High Court quashed a conviction and sentence against Bulawayo City Council, which had been fined $600 for culpable homicide when a 15-year-old boy drowned after he slipped and fell into a pit in Pumula.
Bulawayo United Residents Association ward 27 chairperson Simangaliso Sibanda said there was need for urgent intervention to save lives.
“There are pits in Pelandaba West and there are about three of them there,” Sibanda said.
“They are the ones that continue to claim the lives of our beloved children.
“These areas were once plots and that is when these pits were dug and left open.
“Some of the pits are more than 10 metres deep, so when children see these pits they go and bath and end up drowning.
“We are really worried about these disused pits because we do not know how many more people we could lose.”
Sibanda said council should fill up the pits or look for other means to ensure safety of the residents.
“The council should ensure that these kinds of incidents do not occur, even a fence around the disused pits would be enough to provide safety for residents,” she said.
“On the other side of the road where there is an Apostolic church, there are two other disused pits of the same depth of more than 10 metres.”
The sand poachers don’t seem to have any respect for the dead.
Hyde Park Cemetery is also under threat from illegal sand abstraction with a couple of graves having been defaced.
Key infrastructure in and around the city is also under threat from the widespread indiscriminate digging.
Pumula South Residents Association chairman Khumbulani Mangena said they had gathered as residents to find a way forward to prevent more drownings.
“We have come together as Pumula South residents to help each other on how best we can find a solution because these disused pits have claimed the lives of many,” Mangena said.
“Children are dying in these pits and we do not know whose child is going to follow next.
“Council should close these disused pits which have caused deaths in the community because traditionally, if a river or pit takes one life, it then becomes a cycle unless and until there are consultations made traditionally.”
Mangena said council should ensure the safety of residents by filling up disused pits.
“In urban areas since there is not much of believing in these traditional things, council should just seal these disused pits,” he said.
“If sealing the pits is impossible, then there should be other means of ensuring safety to the residents maybe through fencing.
“There should be security means to ensure that people do not come close to these pits, whether they use fences, wood or any other material as long as they seal these pits.
“We know that water has been scarce in the city and people use these places to secure the precious liquid, but losing lives is more painful.”
Mangena said residents must not to swim or bath in the abandoned pits.
Ward 17 councillor Sikhululekile Moyo said council, with the help of other organisations, was working on addressing the problem.
“There are developments from BCC and other organisations that have come on board to help and assist solve this problem,” Moyo said.
“I will go and check on the progress of sealing these pits, but these organisations in conjunction with council are making sure these pits are filled up”.
Some of the pits were dug up in 1995 by council to extract gravel for road repairs and maintenance and over the years, they collected water during the rainy season.
