A man believed to be in his early 30s sparked panic at the Kwekwe City Council dump site after scavengers mistook his legs, which were sticking out of a heap of rubbish, for those of a dead person.
The man, who is alleged to be battling drug addiction, is said to have climbed into a council skip bin at the Kwekwe long-distance bus terminus and fallen asleep while heavily intoxicated on Tuesday.
Unaware that someone was inside, council workers arrived the following morning, emptied the bin into a refuse truck and took the waste to the city’s dump site.
It was only when scavengers started going through the rubbish that they found the man buried under the waste.
A council employee, who asked not to be named, told the Chronicle that the man had climbed into the skip bin at about 9 pm.
“At around 6.30 AM, a Kwekwe City Council refuse truck arrived for its routine collection. The driver lifted the bin and drove to the city’s dump site on the outskirts of Kwekwe to offload,” said the employee.
Kwekwe mayor, Councillor Albert Zinhanga, confirmed the incident, saying scavengers initially thought they had found a body.
“The man was found buried in a heap of rubbish at the dump site. The people who collect discarded objects such as wood and scrap metal saw human legs protruding from the dump and assumed it was a corpse,” he said.
According to Cllr Zinhanga, one of the scavengers informed council officials, who reported it to the police.
“When the police came, they realised the person was breathing and ferried him to Kwekwe District Hospital for medical care,” he said.
The man was later taken to Amaveni Rehabilitation Centre for assessment.
Tariro Moyo, 46, who makes a living collecting recyclable material, said they ran away after seeing what looked like a human body.
“I make a living from collecting recyclables at the dump site. We were looking for plastic and metal when I saw legs sticking out from under a sack,” he said.
“The trousers were dirty, and his feet were not moving. We all thought it was a dead person killed for ritual purposes and dumped, and we fled from the scene.”
A police officer who attended the scene said it was initially difficult to tell whether the man was alive.
The officer said they heard a faint snore when they pulled back the rubbish. The man had been buried under plastic, cardboard and food waste, and although he was breathing, he was very weak and disoriented after spending the whole night in the bin.
He said the man had cuts and bruises on his arms.
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