Samantha Phiri was found by a gardener at Cecil John Rhodes Primary School on the evening of February 27. She had been missing from her class for the better part of the day.
Reports on the national television broadcaster suggested that the girl had drowned. A pathologist at United Bulawayo Hospitals carried a post-mortem two days after the fateful incident and the report is in the hands of the local police.
Ngoni Mazhindu-Mashandu, family spokesperson, told The Zimbabwean that there had been connivance by the school headmistress, Idah Nyabeze, and the state media personnel to misrepresent the facts. Nyabeze is understood to be a niece of Vice President Joice Mujuru.
“The headmistress (Nyabeze) rushed to invite the state media to the scene before she could even pay her condolences to the family. She only briefly visited us. We do not buy the fact that the child drowned,” said Mazhindu-Mushandu.
He added that the family believed the child was murdered and thrown into the water.
“Samantha had a deep cut on her throat after the incident. If she had drowned, she should have been found floating but a gardener had to use a sweeping broom to retrieve her from the bottom of the pool,” he said.
Sylivia Mushandu, the grandmother of the late child who has been a nurse for 40 years dismissed drowning as the cause of the minor’s death.
“I am the first person from the family who saw Samantha lying dead at Gweru General Hospital. Her stomach was not full of water. I opened her mouth and turned her to face downwards but no water came out. Why are police refusing to show us the post-mortem report?” she asked.
Acting provincial police spokesperson, Emmanuel Mahoko, said the post-mortem report could not be produced.
“Investigations are still underway. The post-mortem report will only be produced in court if the investigations we are carrying reveal that a crime was committed. However, the family is free to give its findings to the investigating officer so that they are considered,” he said.
Mahoko said no one has been formally charged yet over the matter.
Post published in: News