The Sunday Mail
Rutendo Rori in Marondera
The horror phone call came around 3am on Saturday.
The caller extended pleasantries, established if the person on the other end knew of the devastation in Chimanimani, before ending the conversation.
The caller wanted to convey a message, but it seems he dodged the subject.
Maybe it was meant to calm the receiver.
Then after a few minutes, another phone call came through.
This time it was a different voice.
The second caller introduced himself before asking to establish whom he was talking to.
He wanted to be sure that the message is delivered to its intended recipient.
From there, he took aim and fired – “Munashe Jena is no more”.
Munashe (13) is one of the two school boys who died after a mudslide on a dormitory they were sleeping in at St Charles Lwanga in Chimanimani.
He is also amongst the over 100 people who have died as a result of Cyclone Idai induced rains that hit parts of Manicaland and Masvingo provinces.
Several hundreds of people are still missing after the menacing cyclone which also hit hard on Mozambique and Malawi.
Munashe’s mother, Catherine Sithole says her son was quiet, respectful and wanted to be a pastor.
The boy has since been buried in Marondera, but her mother still cannot believe it.
In an interview after the burial, Ms Sithole narrated to The Sunday Mail how she received the tragic news.
“At around 3am on Saturday, I received a call from the school head, who informed me that a dormitory for form ones had been damaged by floods,” she says with her head bowed and seemingly in a distant mind.
“I told him that we had seen a news story on television and we were intending to phone and ask if the children were safe.
“The call ended there.
“I then received another call after a few minutes from the school’s boarding master who said; ‘Munashe is no more’.
“At first I thought he meant that my son was missing, but I didn’t get clarification before the conversation ended.
“I then called my pastor who told me to call the school again for clarification.
“I made a phone call to the boarding master and he made it clear that Munashe had died,”
Munashe was second born in a family of four.
But even after getting the sad news, Ms Sithole still could not believe it.
She then asked Munashe’s aunt to phone the school again.
But that call did not yield a different message.
Indeed the boy was no more.
Ms Sithole recalls the last conversation she had with her son.
“He phoned from school, promised to read hard and get good results to make me proud,” she said.
“Munashe was obsessed with going to church and always said he wanted to be a pastor. That was his dream.
“He hardly missed church services at AFM and used to receive merits as the best student at Sunday school when he was young.”
Ms Sithole said she raised Munashe as a single parent for 10 years and only last year, the boy’s father chipped in to take care of his son.
“Munashe and his father suddenly became close since December last year when he decided to send him to a boarding school.
“My son was also close to his paternal grandmother who stays here, that is why he was buried in Marondera.”
The grandmother, Mrs Doreen Jena believes the Lord will help the family pull through the difficult time.
“I remember he used to promise his mom and dad that he will read hard so that he succeeds in life,” she said.
“Munashe’s death has left a gap in the family, but with the Lord’s help, we will come to accept it one day.”
The late boy’s uncle Mr Clive Jena miserably described the tough journey they encountered to collect his nephew’s body from Chimanimani.
He said as they went to the area, which had become impassable due to damaged roads, their prayer was to afford the boy a decent burial.
“As we were gathered at home, we heard that the situation in Chimanimani had been declared a national disaster.
“We also received a call from the school head who then told us Government had deployed rescue teams to the school.
“We drove to Chipinge, but we were delayed for about five hours after we reached a section where the road had curved in.
“We then joined people from the area to put up a makeshift bridge using wooden logs, before we proceeded to Skyline where we collected the body.”
Munashes’s body arrived in Paradise Park, Marondera on Monday around 2100 hours.
The following day he was buried at Paradise Cemetery where hundreds of people including government officials took time to bid farewell to the boy.
It is sad that the boy could not live to make his mother proud with good school grades and the pastoral dream is no more.
