On a walk with his friends and wives and girlfriends, Roy George Tinashe Dikinya, 40, took a misstep and slipped while walking parallel to the edge of the gorge.
The surfaces were wet and slippery due to heavy rain and he couldn’t help himself, slipping on rocks and falling from a height of approximately 108 meters, his friends told CNN.
Dikinya, originally from Harare, lived in Victoria Falls for a year and knew the area well.
His body was found on January 2, but the area where he fell was difficult for the rescue team to reach, as the river was full after heavy rains.
People have drowned at the site before, but this was the first time anyone had fallen in the throat, said Farawo.
A video seen by CNN shows his remains being lifted back to the edge of the cliff with a zip line and pulley system. The rescue also involved military personnel, miners and volunteers from the tourism sector, added Farawo.
Dikinya was a fitness trainer and father of twin boys, Trey and Lionel, and two girls, Hayli and Taya, from a previous relationship.
“My hope right after the fall is that he can do it because he is in shape, he is strong and he is a good swimmer,” said his partner, Mazwi Shamu, during a phone conversation with CNN while transporting Dikinya’s remains to Harare in Thursday.
“I was so hopeful that maybe he would have clung to a rock or fallen into the water and swam to the shore.”
The couple planned to announce their recent engagement to friends and family and had plans to travel around Asia, Shamu said.
“He was determined and a hard worker, who wanted to have a life of his own,” his mother, Eileen Gowera-Dikinya, told CNN by phone. He used to tell a lot of jokes and was an artist, she added, laughing heartily at some of her memories of him.
Dikinya was a foodie, determined to help others lead a healthy lifestyle, said his mother.
He built a gym in his home so that residents could train and encouraged people around him to exercise and eat well.
He was a football fanatic and a supporter of the Dynamos Football Club in Harare, and used to watch the games on Sundays, said his best friend Reginald Matinanga.
“He was practically a family and I will cherish those moments and memories forever,” he said.
Located at the western end of Zimbabwe, this Victoria Falls National Park is a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site. Often listed as one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the falls are known by the local Kololo tribe as “Mosi-oa-Tunya” – which means “the smoke that thunders”.
1.7 km wide and up to 100 meters high, they are not the highest or widest falls in the world, but many consider them the most spectacular.
The ZPWMA manages one of the largest properties in the country, which has about 5 million hectares or 13% of the total area of Zimbabwe.