By Judith Nyuke
A 3-year-old child died by drowning at St. Anne’s Primary School in Harare after an Early Childhood Development (ECD) teacher reportedly left the children in her care unsupervised.
Martha Karota Rice was not asked to plead when she appeared before Harare magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa charged with culpable homicide.
The matter was rolled over to 6 June 2025.
The State represented by Rufaro Chonzi alleges that on 3 June 2024 at number 03 Waverly Close, Sentosa, Mabelreign, Harare, Rice was at her workplace (Saint Annes Primary School) attending to her ECD A and B class consisting of eight pupils.
At around 1130 hours, Rice then negligently left the other seven pupils unattended by an adult whilst getting inside the school building.
She reportedly also left a gate to an open school swimming pool open.
It is the State’s case that due to her negligence, one of the pupils then fell into the swimming pool and drowned.
