LINDA SOKO-TEMBO AND NOEL IYOMBWA write
@SunZambian
TWENTY-SIX year old Codrine Himayoba’s big dreams to improve his family’s fortunes were on Friday afternoon crushed along with his life as a wall at the Woodlands Stadium collapsed taking his life.
His wife, mother and other family members are demanding answers to the unexplained mystery of his death following the collapse of a wall at the stadium.
They want to know whether the wall fell on him as they were allegedly pulling down a pillar or the pillar just fell on him.
Martha Himayoba, his widow, is still in shock that her husband could die so soon after being recalled by the company.
In an exclusive interview with the Sun, Martha complained that her husband had found a good job in the Lower Zambezi but his white boss forced him back to Lusaka.
She explained that Codrine had been working for Liege Africa Construction Company since March this year after leaving another job in the Lower Zambezi.
On that fateful day, he had asked her to sell everything in their kantemba (shop) so that they could pool their resources to buy a cow.
However, before she could do so, the cold hand of death struck. She was preparing to go to the shop just after talking to her husband, that she received a phone call that he had been rushed to hospital following an accident.
She quickly rushed to Chilenje Level one Hospital with her brother in law but on arrival, we were advised that the patient had been transferred to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH).
According to Martha, her husband’s boss gave her K40 to use as transport to go to UTH.
When they got to UTH, they were told at Casualty that the person they were looking for had died and body taken to the mortuary.
The family has not yet been given details of the accident and demanding to know how their bread winner lost his life.
In an exclusive interview at the funeral home, the family had this to say:
MS HIMAYOBA: My name is Martha Himayoba (WIDOW)
THE SUN: WHAT HAPPENED?
Usiku banani laila kuti ndalama niku fakilako nzelu na mwana banamuza kuti vaku shop ni Odesy kuti ndalama ti kafakile pamodzi na salary nakuya kugula ng’ombe kuti ikazibalana mwana azakavutika na ma school fees akakula.
(The night before the accident my husband advised me to sell goods at our shop and that we should add up the money with his salary and buy a cow for breeding purposes so that by the time our child grows up money for school would not be a problem).
Kuseni bana yenda ku nchinto ndipo ku ma 11:00hrs banatuma phone kunifusa ngati nina gulitsa vintu vamu shop. ninabayankha kuti niza yenda manje manje. Banakamba ok ni yenda kuti nika kulisa. Ndalama tikafaka pamodzi na salary yabo tikagule ng’ombe. Ananiuza kuti nikazimuona mwana, osati aziyenda yenda.
(In the morning he went for work and around 11:00 hours he called me and asked if I had gone to the shop to sale things. I told him I would be going soon he told me to hurry so that whatever money I was going to make I should keep it and that we would add up with his salary)
He told me to take care of our child and not allow her to be moving from one place to another and he hang up.
Around 12:00 hours we got a phone call that my husband was involved in an accident that’s how we went to Chilenje level one hospital with family members and his boss advised us that they had rushed him to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and he gave us a K40.00 for transport.
When we arrived, we did not find him we found that he had already been taken to the mortuary.
THE SUN: So what do you want the company to do?
MRS HIMAYOBA:
I would want the company he worked for to help me with finances to raise my three-year-old daughter I want to buy something that will be giving me money to raise my child.
My husband died while he was working. He had stopped working for Liege Africa, a construction company but his boss the white man forced him to go back and work for him.
He had found a job at Lower Zambezi at a lodge and he only worked there for two months that’s how he forced him to come back in March.
The boss told my husband to get on a bus and pay forward and that’s how my husband came to Lusaka not knowing he was being invited merely to be killed.
Even before he left the man used to call my husband and ask him to go back and work for him but my husband used to refuse.
When he left for Lower Zambezi he would call him and say come back, I will increase your salary because he wanted him to help with the remaining construction works.
MS CHIYAMA: Dzina langa ndine Unity Chiyama (MOTHER)
(My names are Unity Chiyama).
Ndine mai wa amene atisiya mwana wanga ndiye anali kunisunga.
(I am the mother of Codrine Hemayoba the child who was looking after me here)
Akafola ndiye anali kuniletela vakudya. Ba muna banga anamwalira kudala. Banani siya na bana bali four manje na sala na ban ba atatu chibuba chinamugwera ku Woodlands stadium ndeya mwamene anamwalilira
(Whenever he was paid, he used to buy me food. My husband died a long time ago. I had four children but now l have three the wall fell on him at Woodlands stadium that’s how he died).
The family of a 26 year old bricklayer Codrine Shamayoba who died while on duty at Woodlands stadium is still in the dark to what really happened as some people are saying that the wall collapsed on him, while others are saying that the workers were trying to bring the pillar down when it accidentally collapsed on the victim.
Woodlands stadium is having a massive infrastructure development, and a question one would ask is that why would a pillar which is under construction collapse before completion, while on the other hand why would the workers bring down a pillar before it is completed?
BROTHER OF HIMAYOBA, RICHARD MUSUTU;
Yesterday I received a call that my brother was injured when I rushed to Chilenje clinic I found that he was referred to University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and upon arrival, I found that he was already dead.
Codrine Himayoba has left behind a wife and one child; he was hardworking who used to take care of his mother and his other relatives.
It is not clear what really happened because others are saying the wall collapsed on him while others are saying the workers were trying to bring down the pillar then in the process it accidentally fell on him, so we are not very sure we are yet to get all the details of what happened. He sustained a broken leg and his intestines were ripped off.
UNCLE OF THE DECEASED, MISHECK NJOVU;
We are really confused about what really happened, the owner of the building should tell us what happened because we really don’t know what really transpired, there are saying workers were bringing down the wall, but the other information that we obtained is that a pillar fell on him, we have lost a bread winner who used to take care of his mother because his father is late.
We are just waiting on the company where he used to work and the owner of the building to tell us the way forward otherwise concerning what really happened we are still in the dark.
