Zimasa and Nolizwi were best friends, they loved spending time together and they did everything together. They went to town together and stole fruits from the farmers’ trees on their way back. They also liked breaking the rules, they broke almost each and every rule their parents laid down for them to follow but they were not aware that breaking one simple rule could nearly cost them their lives.
On one of the normal days, Zimasa and Nolizwi decided to skip school and do whatever their hearts desired. They hid behind a big rock when the lady from their church Mampinge came to fetch the other children and accompanied them to school.
Whilst the other children were busy learning at school, Zimasa and Nolizwi did everything that they wished to do, they played games and ate whatever food they wanted but they were bored and time seemed to move very slowly. So they decided to go and take a swim on the nearby waterfall called Umgababa.
Umgababa is a waterfall found in the Eastern Cape in a town called Mount Ayliff. It is located in the Lugelweni Village in the Ntsizwa mountains. It is well known for its beautiful rocks and cooling water. People liked visiting the waterfall and they visit it a lot during the December holidays. However, no one knew what creature lived on under the waterfall. There had been a lot of scary stories about creatures and evil spirits that lived in the waterfall.
Zimasa and Nolizwi didn’t pay any heed to the stories because they thought they were just stories. They arrived at the waterfall and they swam and tried out new swimming styles. They brought a long log into the water and each one of them sat at the ends of the log when suddenly something grabbed the log and twisted it while sinking it deep down into the water. As the thing was twisting the log each of the girls was thrown far away from one another but luckily no one was injured.
They both came out of the water feeling dizzy and took their clothes. When they looked into the water there was no sign of the log, until after a few seconds it appeared on the surface, broken in half. They both placed their clothes under their arms and ran down the mountain as fast as they could with cold shivers running up and down their small spines and terror written all over their dry and parched faces.
When they were near the village they put on their clothes and went home, no one said anything to anyone. They did not want to talk about it because they were scared, today they cheated death and only God knows what would happen if whatever that thing was had caught one of them.
Since then they never went near the waterfall and they made a promise to each other to never skip school ever again.