Sawdust landslide buries house, kills 2

A MASSIVE sawdust landslide buried a six-roomed house and claimed two lives at Nyanga Pine Estate in Mutasa last week on Friday.

The victims were Perpetua Muzingembuya (17) and her fourmonth-old niece, Lessly Maroka.

The cause of the landslide is still under investigation, but it is suspected that heavy rains may have triggered it, according to acting Mutasa District Development Coordinator, Mr Tedious Beto.

He said Mutasa District Civil Protection Unit (CPU) is on high alert and evacuated survivors of the landslide to a safe area.

He said efforts are underway to ensure that the survivors receive aid and are relocated to safer houses at Selbourne Primary School where they were temporarily housed.

“We are afraid that other staff houses will also be affected if the rains persist, reason we evacuated all staff members and their families from that particular compound. As CPU, we have activated our structures in the district and are on high alert,” he said.

When The Manica Post visited the scene, a day after the incident, where a six-roomed block used to stand, only a heap of sawdust remained. Rubble could be seen semi-covered by the heap of sawdust.

Beside the heap of sawdust were two intact blair toilets. They were not affected by the landslides.

In an interview, the late Perpetua’s sister, Ms Plaxedes Muzingembuya said she was the last person to see her sister alive.

“Perpetua escorted me to the bus stop a few minutes before she died. She did not get to the bus stop and told me that she was going back home as it was about to rain. She did not want the child she was carrying on her back to catch a cold. She rushed back home and before I reached the bus stop, a neighbour called and asked if I had seen Perpetua. I told her that she had gone back home. The neighbour told me that they could not locate her. She asked me to return immediately as the house had been buried in a landslide.

“I went back home, and as I approached the house, I saw people gathered. Heavy duty machinery had also been dispatched to try and retrieve the bodies. My sister’s body was retrieved from the rubbles and the infant was still strapped on her back. They were already dead. I heard that she tried to escape, but failed,” she said.

Ms Muzingembuya said the heap of sawdust hit the house following the heavy rains that were received in the area for the greater part of last week.

Following the incident, Wattle Company which owns Nyanga Timbers evacuated survivors to Selbourne Primary School and provided them with all the necessary supplies while planning on where to settle the affected families.

In an interview at the scene, the company’s managing director, Mrs Victoria Jakazi, passed condolences to the bereaved families, and promised to provide all the necessary assistance to those affected.

“This is a sad incident, and we have since evacuated everyone from the affected staff blocks. We have never experienced such a disaster before. We are grieving with the deceased’s families. It rained heavily resulting in the landslide that wiped out the whole block of staff rooms. Unfortunately, the rooms had two occupants who sadly failed to make it.

“While we have evacuated our staff from the affected houses, we are also working on improving the drainage system around the staff compound to avert future mishaps. This staff compound was built in the 1990s when the sawmill was opened,” she said.

Mrs Jakazi said the company footed all the funeral expenses for the two deceased people.

“The company catered for all the transport costs, coffins, food for the mourners and everything that has to do with a funeral as we are also grieving with the families. We were shocked by this incident and hope it will never happen again,” she said.

At least 100 people were evacuated from the compound village to Selbourne Primary School while waiting relocation. One of the evacuated, Ms Anna Bhero (20) said they lost property worth thousands of dollars as a result of the landslide.

“We lost everything and we are being accommodated at Selbourne Primary School where we were evacuated to. We lost all our belongings including important documents like birth certificates and national identity cards,” she said.