When their granddaughter, who had been abducted by a maid at the age of 11, was discovered last year in a community 20 kilometers distant, four years after her kidn@pping, an old couple from Mavava community in Tsholotsho experienced conflicting emotions.
Their tears were a mixture of happiness and rage over the fact that their granddaughter was still alive and the disappearance of Fortunate Sibanda, the kidn@pper, who was thought to have escaped to Botswana. The mother of the girl, who we shall refer to as “Sinqobile Dube,” has intellectual disabilities.
Fortunate transported the young girl to Murewa in Mashonaland East after kidn@pping her, where she reportedly found a husband. The girl was made to perform menial tasks like getting water and herding cattle.
The grandparents, Bartholomew and Elizabeth Hadebe, spoke to a Saturday Chronicle news crew in Mavava Village about their agony over the experience.
“For all those four years, we never knew peace as we didn’t know if our granddaughter was alive or not. We tried everything humanly possible, including going to Binga to engage traditional healers,” said Hadebe.
Even though they were glad their granddaughter had made it home safely, they still had a lot of concerns. “The police continue to tell us that they are doing investigations, but for what length of time? The woman has not yet been taken into custody.
Additionally, no specialists evaluated our granddaughter to determine whether or not she had been s3xually abu-sed, so we don’t know what they did to her,” Hadebe continued. Hadebe also expressed interest in the process by which a Tsholotsho Civil Registry official issued a birth certificate for their grandchild.
A fake Magama Primary School admittance record that was used to produce Sinqobile’s birth certificate—now with a new name—was found as a result of the dramatic and emotional episode.
