25 Mar 2020

Two primary school pupils from one family have drowned in a burrow pit suspected to have been left open by illegal miners.

Their uncle, who took the leadership of Francistown to the scene of the incident, said the two were a Standard Six girl and a Standard Four  boy of Aerodrome Primary School in Francistown.

Mr Shimane Masoke said the duo went with their grandmother to harvest phane between Kgaphamadi and Gerald Estates, near where the incident happened.

Mr Masoke said information he had gathered was that their grandmother was walking ahead of them and they lagged far behind her.  He said when they reached the burrow-pit they decided to swim or play in the water.

He said eye witness accounts told him the Standard Six girl went first drowned, and that when his cousin realised that she was drowning he followed her on a mission to rescue her and he also drowned.

Realising that the situation was out of hand, one of their companions, also a little boy, rushed home to inform the family,

Mr Masoke said the family tried to search for the duo and upon realising that the pit was getting deeper, they tied some of the search team members with a rope to stop them from drowning.

He said with the assistance of Botswana Defence Force scuba divers, they ultimately managed to retrieve the bodies of the two children, and said they would be buried on Saturday. 

Francistown mayor, who is also councillor for Satellite South, Mr Godisang Radisigo said they were concerned about the incident, adding that it was a result of illegal gravel mining.

He said they were going to investigate if the area was licensed by the Department of Mining and establish why rehabilitation of the place was not done.

Cllr Radisigo advised that while schools were on recess due to COVID-19, parents should take care and look after their children and deter them from roaming around the streets to avoid calamities. ENDs