Four drown in Mufulira boat accident

s=”f”>Times of Zambia by andrew Miti on 5/22/13

By MOFFAT CHAZINGWA  –

FOUR people, among them a two-year-old baby, drowned when the canoe they were paddling capsized on Valley Dam in Mufulira.

The quartet was coming from their field across the dam when they met their fate.

Among the dead, three are members of one family — a brother, sister and the child.

Copperbelt police commissioner Mary Tembo and Mufulira District Commissioner Beatrice Mithi confirmed the incident which happened on Monday around 20:00 hours.

Ms Tembo named the deceased as Webby Chanda, 45, Willy Chilufya, 42, and Alice Chibwe, 32, who was with her two-year-old son Richard. All of them are residents of Murundu Township.

The victims, who are farmers, were in a canoe trying to cross the dam on their way home when the accident occurred.

“The canoe is the only mode of transport to get to either side of Valley Dam and it so happened that the four were returning home when the canoe they were paddling capsized,” Ms Tembo said.

When police arrived at the scene of the accident, they found members of the community had already retrieved the four bodies.

Ms Mithi said the four had gone to the other side of the dam and when returning in the evening, they found the canoe which they had used earlier missing.

She said it was then that they decided to use an old canoe which they found anchored on the edge of the dam.

“I suspect that when they looked at time since it was getting dark, they decided to use the old canoe which they found in order to return home early but unfortunately, they ended up capsizing,” she said.

In another incident, a 15-year-old girl of Zambia Township in Chililabombwe was defiled by eight men who left her unconscious.

The incident happened on Tuesday around 22:00 hours and police have since apprehended two people in connection with the defilement.

Ms Tembo named the suspects as Rahi Banda, 23, of house number T317, Lubengele Township, and Justine Sikazwe, 20, of house numb