Two children drown in water-filled pit
Lebogang Mosikare | Tuesday March 24, 2020 17:46
The children had gone to the bush with their grandmother to harvest the nutritious Mophane worms when they met their untimely deaths.
The Standard Four pupils –who are cousins – were also with their young male cousin when the incident happened.
The surviving cousin assisted the police and scuba divers from the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) at the scene, pointing out the exact spot where his cousins had drown in the pit near the New General Estates Cemetery.
The mood was sombre when the mothers of the deceased, who are siblings, were taken to the pit before the BDF scuba divers retrieved the lifeless bodies of the children at around 6pm.
Many community members from Kgaphamadi and Maipaafela locations walked a distance of about four kilometres to the place where the incident occurred while others used cars to reach the pit.
The residents who went to the pit had one thing in mind – that it should be rehabilitated before it claims more lives.
The Mayor of Francistown Godisang Radisigo told MmegiOnline that he, along with the District Commissioner, Chabongwa Matseka and area councillor for Kgaphamadi, Ontiretse Bakaile, went to the family of the deceased children to offer their condolences.
Radisigo said that the Francistown City Council is yet to establish if the land where the water-filled pit is located belongs to the local municipality or an individual.
He said that they want to establish if the pit was dug legally or not in order to take appropriate action if there was any negligence.
Although this publication managed to contact the station commander of Tatitown police, Edward Leposo, he was constrained to talk about the incident. Though Lesopo confirmed the case, he said he could not speak on the matter because he was on bereavement leave, but would be back at work tomorrow (Wednesday).
He then referred this publication to the acting station commander of Tatitown police, Lawrence Nthoiwa.
Nthoiwa was unfortunately unable to shed more light on the incident as well because he was attending to other cases at the station for the better part of the afternoon (Tuesday).