FIVE family members are lucky to be alive after a bomb exploded in their homestead, blowing off the roof of a house and damaging three huts at neighbouring homesteads in Lupane.
The explosion occurred on Sunday afternoon at the homestead
of Lupane Women’s Centre director Mrs Hildegard Mufukare along the old
Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road in Mqoqi Village, Shabula area under Chief
Mabhikwa, police confirmed.
There were no casualties. Preliminary investigations
suggest the bomb could be an anti-tank landmine designed to damage or destroy
armoured vehicles.
It is suspected it was planted during the country’s
liberation war. “Circumstances are that on the 3rd of October 2021 at about
3pm, the informant Tinashe Mufukare aged 33 of Hildeguard Mufukare’s homestead
assigned one of the domestic workers to dispose litter at a rubbish pit. He lit
the fire and left the dumping site.
“After some minutes an explosion was heard from the dumping
site and it caused cracks on the two-roomed house, and also shattered the
screen of a Toyota Hilux double cab which was also parked in the yard,” said
Matabeleland North police spokesperson Inspector Glory Banda.
He said a report was made to the police and the Zimbabwe
National Army bomb disposal team.
Insp Banda urged members of the public to be wary of
suspicious looking substances.
“We appeal to members of the public not to temper with anything that is metallic in nature and looks suspicious lest they detonate explosives. Whenever they discover anything suspicious, they should report to the nearest police station,” he said.
Mrs Mufukare said the rubbish pit had been there for years
and was for burning garbage. She said there were five people cleaning a fowl
run when the explosion occurred.
“They are my children and were cleaning a fowl run. They
put garbage in the pit and burnt it. The explosion happened soon after they
left the pit going back to the fowl run to continue cleaning,” said Mrs
Mufukare.
She said the pit is on the edge of the yard, about two
metres from the two-roomed house whose walls cracked and roof was totally blown
off leaving trusses broken. The fowl run is about eight metres away from the
pit and its walls also cracked.
“They suddenly heard a loud bang which I also heard at
Lupane Centre where I was. People on the other side of Gwayi River and Banda
area about 10km away also heard the explosion. The damaged house is about two
metres from the pit and its walls cracked while the trusses broke causing all
corrugated iron roof sheets to falls off. The police bomb disposal unit which
visited today suspect that it is an anti-tanker,” she said.
A Blair toilet wall also cracked.
Some window panes cracked while a roof was damaged at a
neighbouring homestead belonging to Mrs Fiona Nyathi (74) while Mrs Olipha
Sibanda’s hut also lost window panes.
A door fell off from another neighbour’s rondavel. The
explosion’s vibration was also felt at the Lupane District Development
Co-ordinator’s office, close to 10km away from the homestead.
The District Development Co-ordinator, Mrs Ennetty Sithole,
who chairs the District Civil Protection Unit (CPU), implored security agents
to carry investigations to ensure villagers’ safety.
“We went there in the morning as CPU and found that the
explosion had left a trail of destruction. The two-roomed house at Mrs
Mufukare’s homestead is a write-off while several other structures were damaged
but fortunately no one was injured.
“It is suspected that it could be a bomb that was left
during the liberation war and we have requested the security to do
investigations speedily so that we are assured that people are safe. We have
sent an appeal to stakeholder to assist with building material for the affected
families,” she said. Chronicle
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