The Sunday News
Grace Mbeba, Sunday News Reporter
NKETA 6 suburb is generally a quite area compared to other high-density areas in Bulawayo, but of late, a lot of has been happening that has sent tongues wagging.
What has caught the attention of residents is that most of the hair-raising incidents happening in or near the recreation park, leading to some to claim that that place is haunted. The recent incident was a car which was involved in an accident before bursting into flames.
One of the concerned residents who identified himself as Mr Masuku narrated the events.
“First, it was a young man who hanged himself, followed by a drunk driver who lost his life there on the 2015 New Year’s Eve in an accident. Early this year a young boy also hanged himself at the park and now this car that burst into flames at the very same park.”
Some residents believe a cleansing ceremony should be held at the park to “cast away evil spirits” hovering around the park.
“We are Africans and when such bad things like loss of life happen at the same place now and again we strongly feel the place is haunted and something should be done. Community leaders should look for traditionalists or church people to conduct a ceremony there,” said another resident, Mrs Midlred Ndlovu.
After a car recently burst into flames killing one person and injuring several others, a resident who identified herself as Mrs Ncube urged motorists to exercise caution when approaching the park.
“The road can get busy to an extent that one gets confused when crossing, that is how I got knocked down by a car and suffered serious head injuries”.
According to kgm.gov.t, the process of eliminating or improving accident black spots in a road network is composed of several activities. These include identification of black spots, which is the procedure to locate those spots in the road network that are particularly dangerous, that is, the black spots.
It is followed by diagnosis, which is the process to study what are the problems, the accident contributing factors and the deficiencies for each of the identified black spots. The third stage, finding countermeasures implies a methodical analysis to design suitable countermeasures for each black spot, based on actual problems and deficiencies.
The next step is estimating effects is the process to estimate the safety effects (and if necessary also other effects) and costs of suitable countermeasures.
It is followed by prioritising implies finding the best action plan (or investment programme), according to some defined criteria, and based on estimated effects and costs as well as budget restrictions.
The next stage is implementation is the actual realisation of the prioritised measures included in the action plan (or investment programme). Follow-up and evaluation is the last and very important step, which aim is to assess the actual results (effects and costs).
While the above process involves scientific means, residents believe the short cut to end the problem is to go via the traditional route of cleansing.
According to online studies, cleansing, also called ritual purification is the purification ritual prescribed by a religion by which a person about to perform some ritual is considered to be free of uncleanliness, especially prior to the worship of a deity , and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness.
Ritual purification may also apply to objects and places. Ritual uncleanliness is not identical with ordinary physical impurity, such as dirt stains; nevertheless, body fluids are generally considered ritually unclean.
Most of these rituals existed long before the germ theory of disease , and figure prominently from the earliest known religious systems of the Ancient Near East. Some writers remark that similarities between cleansing actions, engaged in by obsessive compulsive people, and those of religious purification rites point to an ultimate origin of the rituals in the personal grooming behaviour of the primates, but others connect the rituals to primitive taboos.
