Harare East Member of Parliament, Tendai Biti (CCC), has blamed Donnybrook Racecourse owners for the death of two girls from Manresa who drowned in a disused quarry pit on Sunday.
Biti, who is the MP for the area, said the owners of the racecourse should be held to account for the deaths of Tafara Masamba (15) and her cousin-sister Blessing Munemo (12) who drowned while swimming. Bit said:
Two children from Harare East Constituency have unnecessarily lost their lives. We mourn with the parents & relatives from this avoidable tragedy. Donnybrook must however be held to account.
Donnybrook Racecourse is one of the major car racing joints in Harare.
Catherine Masango, a family member, told NewZimbabwe.com that the two cousin-sisters left their home saying they were attending a car racing event. Said Masango:
They left the house saying they were going to church but later came back saying there was no church.
Together with other children from the neighbourhood they left and went to Donnybrook. We later heard that they had drowned.
The children who were at the scene said Tafara tried to rescue Blessing who was stuck in the mud but they later drowned together.
Mourners who spoke to NewZimbabwe.com on Tuesday at the funeral wake blamed the owners of Donnybrook Racecourse for failing to erect a perimeter fence around the pit.
A caretaker at the car racing course said a perimeter fence was erected but was later vandalised.
NewZimbabwe.com reported that when they visited the area where the two drowned there were no signs of a security fence having been previously erected.
15year old and 12 years old surely should not be expected to dive into a pit full of water. Had it been 6 year olds I would understand Biti’s argument. Donny Brooke is not culpable in the deaths. Some arguments are really silly.
Indeed DonnyBrooke must maintain their property to prevent further disasters of any kind from hapoening, but to suggest that they must be held to account for the drowning of 15 and 12 year olds who willfully decided to swim in a flooded pit is nothing but just rant.
That is wrong. Sympathy to the family for a painful and unnecessary loss, but the world must stop forcing people to take responsibility for the poor behaviour of others. That is like someone jumping the wall of their neighbours house and drowning in their pool. Is it then the owner of the property’s fault, as they must be available all the time to tell them that it is wrong to go onto someone elses? Then the parents should be charged at the same time for allowing their children by a water source without supervision and not teaching them that they cannot use others things without getting permission first. How many times must the owner replace the fence only to have it vandalised, at his own cost, when the vandals of the fence walk away free? Will the community around the Donnybrook take responsibility for vandalising the fence, even though it may not have been them. Sad Mr. Biti, your comments are disappointing.
Biti is smoking some real weird shit. He should stop. He is losing all credibility.
Biti has been smoking some weird sh1t here, he should stop before everyone stops accepting a word he utters. He should becareful.
This is infinately silly of him
He must be smoking some good stuff