Friends of the drowned Zimbabwean fisherman, Anderson Muvuru who drowned at the Nandoni Dam last week, have praised the local police for making sure that the body was found.

They reacted after police retrieved the body which had been submerged in the water for almost a week.

Friend and neighbour of the dead fisherma, Jonathan Chinematera said they had been keeping vigil at the dam ever since the man disappeared without a trace, hoping that police would find the body.

The 27-year-old fisherman left after telling his friends that he was going to check his nets at the dam, but henever returned.

His disappearance left more questions than answers after no one came forward with information as to the exact spot where the man might have drowned. This made it very difficult for the police to locate the body as they did not know exactly what had happened. The only assumption at the time was that he might have drowned at the spot where his nets were, but police searched for days without any luck, thus adding more misery to the grieving friends.

Jonathan Chinematera, who also hails from the same village as the drowned man from Masvingo, said they had lost all hope of ever seeing the body and were becoming very worried and starting to have doubts as to where he could have vanished to. “It is very painful to lose such a dedicated and hardworking friend, which adds to the pain not knowing what had happened to him. We could not rule other possibilities, but now that the body has been found, we will try to give him a decent burial back home,” he said.

Limpopo police spokesperson in Vhembe Capt Mashudu Malelo said it had been a headache for them to determine the exact location where the man was said to have drowned. He said they combed everywhere pointed out by his friends but were not lucky. ”We searched the whole of Thursday but our search bore no fruits. Then we decided to question the friends again, who led us to a place many kilometers away from the initial place, “he said.

He said the search party relocated to a place next to Mashawana village which is kilometers away from the initial place. This is where the body was found. “We are again thanking the community for the support they have shown during the search and the confidence they had in us that we would ultimately find the body, which we did,’ he said.

Malelo cautioned all anglers to stop venturing into the water for fishing and advised them to use fish lines which are a legally acceptable means of fishing. “We cannot allow a situation where time and again we have to search for bodies of people who drown from time to time in search of fish to sell, we know there are no jobs but we think there are secure ways of doing it than net fishing,” he said. There was an outcry from the community after the latest drowning.

Mr Solomon Baloyi of the Complaints Resolution Committee voiced his concerns about the department´s dragging its feet on security measures at the dam and said it was sad to see people still losing their lives while fishing. So far, 29 people are believed to have drowned in the dam.