Zimbabwean water resources minister says reservoir project being held up due to mermaids

Some strange things have been happening lately in various parts of Zimbabwe. Last month a man was hounded from a Bulawayo neighbourhood over claims he possessed goblins that were raping his wife and his neighbours’ wives, and otherwise wreaking havoc in the suburban community. Last week Water Resources Minister Sam Sipepa Nkomo told a senate committee that mermaids have been hounding government workers off dam sites in Mutare, Manicaland, and Gokwe in the Midlands. The minister’s stunning revelations add to the many sensational stories that Zimbabweans have over the years passed on about supernatural manifestations in their communities.



Though many are skeptical, some do firmly believe that mermaids exist in Zimbabwe.
Nkomo told a senate oversight committee that traditional chiefs are going to perform rituals to appease restive mermaids believed to inhabit water reservoirs in Gokwe and Mutare where workers are afraid to tread. Mermaids are supposedly mythological water creatures with a female body and the tail of a fish. Such tales were mostly in circulation hundreds of years ago – but stories and alleged sightings continue to make their rounds in Zimbabwe.

One version says mermaids carry humans underwater and if there is a public outcry their relatives might never see them again. But it is also said that victims can return as spirit mediums if their disappearance is not mourned. Such creatures are said to be terrifying workers at the Gokwe dam in Midlands and the Osborne dam in Manicaland. Nkomo said all the workers he sent to work on the dam sites to install water pumps had dumped the project vowing not to return because of the mythical water creatures.



Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo, who also appeared before the same senate committee, backed the call for traditional rites to be performed at the dams to allay workers’ fears. Nkomo said the government is prepared to give the population the water it needs, but is unable to do so until the rituals are performed to facilitate the necessary repairs can be carried out. He said he tried to hire white personnel to do the work at Osborne dam, supposedly because they had not been exposed to the mermaids reports, but they too refused to undertake the project alleging they had seen suspicious creatures.