Johannesburg - After being abducted, starved and abused both physically and emotionally, two young South Africans came home to be reunited with the grandmother, who has spent a year searching for them.
The OR Tambo International Airport arrivals hall was all songs and tears when the two siblings trafficked to Malawi were brought back into the country.
Hugging the 20-year-old woman and 14-year-old boy close, the grandmother who helped rescue them wept into the embrace.
She, alongside Social Development Minister Bathabile Dlamini, were part of a large welcoming party that sang and waved South African flags to greet the traumatised pair.
The seemingly overwhelmed sister and brother wept too.
“We’re very excited and happy,” Mpumalanga Social Development MEC Nomsa Mtsweni said. “We applaud the gogo for not just sitting back and saying ‘the kids are gone’.
“After they called her to say things are not okay, she was knocking on every door. At first she reported the matter to a children’s home. Then she went to the councillor, who reported the matter to the premier’s office, who then quickly reported the matter to the Department of Social Development,” she said.
The MEC added that the children’s home Amazing Grace, in Komatipoort, should have gone straight to the police. The police found out about the kidnapping only in October.
“They tried to do it themselves, and we appreciate the work they did, but in future they should pass it on to the authorities. Had it been reported sooner, they probably would have been found sooner,” Mtsweni said.
The pair’s ordeal has been a gruelling one.
Since their abduction in July last year, when a woman posing as a former teacher promised to take them to the UK to help further their studies, the two were smuggled into Mozambique to get to Malawi and then forced to do household chores.
They were evicted often because the family that abducted them – a husband, wife with four other children – would fail to pay rent. At some point, they slept at a taxi rank for a week.
The torture peaked when they had to walk for two days nonstop without food. The boy contracted malaria, but was treated.
Speaking at a media conference following the reunion, Dlamini said that the two were visibly traumatised and would be receiving help from the department.
“Since being handed over to the South African government they have been kept at a transit home for children in Lilongwe. Social workers from Malawi have reported that the siblings were subjected to physical and emotional abuse and have asked the South African government to provide them with extensive counselling.
“The boy is reportedly very withdrawn and prefers to keep to himself. They will now be further assessed to ascertain their holistic wellbeing,” she said.
The MEC said the grandmother had been receiving counselling, which would continue until she had recovered from her trauma.
Dlamini promised that the department would work hard to ensure the incident was not repeated. She also thanked the Malawian government on behalf of the South African government “for their assistance to help us bring our kids home”.
The Star