BY NOTHANDO DUBE
A 12 year-old Hwange boy, who ran away from home at night nearly a fortnight ago, has been found in Harare in an incident that has left the community searching for answers.
Tanaka Neshena from Madumabisa left home on August 24 at 10 PM without anyone noticing.
CCTV footage from the Hwange Colliery Company showed Tanaka boarding an unidentified vehicle near his home, but it did not provide useful leads as the visuals were hazy.
There were reports that Neshena was spotted around Hwange’s Cinderrella Township talking to a truck driver, but the desperate search by his parents ended this week when they received a call from the police in Harare’s Mbare suburb informing them that their son had been found.
The Neshena family said they were relieved that their child was found alive and well.
“It was around 3pm when a police officer contacted us to inform that Tanaka has handed over himself to the police,” Neshena’s mother Sharai told VicFallsLive.
Sharai said Neshena said he wanted to return to Hwange because he wanted to go to school.
In the phone call conversation, he excitedly spoke to his parents asking them how they were doing.
“He was jovial as usual, he asked how we were doing, as if nothing happened, he also asked after his little sister,” said Sharai.
He was picked from Mbare police station by Sharia’s brother.
“He is safely in Glenview 3, at his uncle’s place,” Sharai said.
“He told us that he went to Harare to visit his cousin.
“According to the uncle, Tanaka is fine but was looking dirty when he went to the police.
“His uncle has since barred many family members from asking Tanaka a lot of questions because, he believes the boy is tired, he will speak when he is well rested.
“He has also advised that it will not be safe to send Tanaka back alone, its either his aunt will bring him over, or we will go and collect him ourselves, we are still deliberating on the options.”
The Neshena family strongly believe that Tanaka’s disappearance had something to do with “spiritual” issues.
“We will get spiritual counselling for him but in the physical we will treat him as if nothing happened.
“He will gradually tell us what happened, he is an extrovert.
“We will first check if he was not abused then take him for spiritual counselling.”
The family thanked the Hwange community for assisting them in their time of need.
‘We are grateful to the deputy head of Thomas Coulter Primary Thokozile Chipato who came to visit us to give her support,” Sharai said.
“I am very happy.”