FOLLOWING THE FATE DOWN THE DRAIN: A CONSTRUCTION ACCIDENT THAT CHANGED JAIROS' LIFE
by Tatu Maluba - 2026
Jairos had a dream. He wanted to build houses, not just live in one.
He left school in Form Three, not because he had failed, but because he believed he had found his calling. While other boys concentrated on their schoolwork, Jairos imagined buildings, measured imaginary window frames and pictured walls rising from the ground.
He told his mother: "Let me go and build."
And so he did.
For two years, he established himself as one of the best young bricklayers in his neighbourhood. His work was neat, his measurements precise and his speed impressive. His foreman nicknamed him Spirit Level.
Then the scaffolding went.
It was a Tuesday in October. Third floor, Kuwadzana Extension. The pine pole snapped. He fell twelve feet and landed on a pile of blocks. He didn't scream. He just couldn't feel his legs.
At Parirenyatwa they fixed what they could. The spine was broken at L2. He would walk again, with a stick. He would never stand long on a scaffold again. And the doctor said it quietly - the injury had damaged nerves low down. He would never father a child.
He was twenty.
He came back to his one room with a plastic chair and a walking stick and no one came to visit after the second week. Building does not wait for a broken builder.
In Zimbabwe, the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) is responsible for promoting occupational health and conducting workplace inspections and assessments. The World Health Organization (WHO) also warns that spinal cord injuries can have lifelong consequences, affecting mobility, independence, employment and social participation.
Jairos's story raises uncomfortable questions about construction site safety, employers' responsibilities and the support available to workers whose livelihoods are destroyed by workplace injuries.
Who looks after the young man who can no longer climb the scaffolding?
Who supports the worker whose body has been permanently changed while the building he helped construct continues to stand?
At 20, Jairos had wanted to build a future.
Instead, he found himself watching that future drain away.
Harare construction accident
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