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Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter

A 29-YEAR-OLD Victoria Falls man cheated death after he fell off a gorge into the Zambezi River before a boulder landed on him crushing both his legs.

The incident happened on Thursday last week.

Chronicle was told that Mr Elmon Muleya slipped from the cliff top where he and other members of Twelve Apostles Church were praying and rolled down the gorge before being caught in tree branches inches above water on the flooded Zambezi River.

The rock on which he slipped allegedly rolled behind him and landed on both his legs, but he remained stuck on the branches.

Church members risked their lives as they clung onto trees and rocks to reach down to Mr Muleya to rescue him before he could fall into the water.

They took him to Victoria Falls Hospital where he was admitted, but was advised to go to a specialist doctor in Bulawayo as the legs were badly damaged. The victim’s brother, Mr Wallace Muleya, said the family was struggling to raise US$500 needed for him to be attended to by a specialist doctor in Bulawayo.

He said church members had raised $3 500 for an ambulance from Victoria Falls to Bulawayo.

“He has to go to a specialist so that they insert metal rods into his legs. In Victoria Falls, they just put a plaster to stabilise the legs but he is in great pain.

“So far, we have managed to raise US$300 out of the US$500 required for him to be attended by a private doctor in Bulawayo and we appeal to well-wishers to help as this incident came at a time when we are not working because of the lockdown.

Mr Christopher Mufakwatsi, a Mkhosana suburb resident whose vehicle was used to take Mr Muleya from the gorges to hospital, said the place where the incident occurred is a common shrine, commonly referred as Inhlane that is used by apostolic and Zionist sects in Victoria Falls.