Theresa Takafuma
On the night of April 10, 2023, social media was awash with messages of appeal to find an eight months old baby boy after he had disappeared with a teenage girl who had been employed as a child minder by the parents a day before.
Every mother’s heart sank, with socialites and celebrities sharing the message on their Facebook pages appealing for the finding of the baby, who almost everyone feared could end up being a victim of child trafficking.
What made the situation worse was that the girl had vanished into thin air, leaving behind a very faint trail of where she could have taken the infant, making it very difficult for the Marenga family to locate their beloved baby, who despite being too young to be out with a stranger, had had an operation the previous week.
The girl (name withheld for ethical reasons), said to be between 15 and 17 years old, left the Marenga house on the pretext of cooing the baby as well as familiarising with the surroundings since she was new, only to vanish into thin air together with the baby.
But who is the girl at the centre of the storm?
Her story runs short of a movie script, as at only 16 she is already a divorcee and has for years been doing sex work in Masvingo, Midlands and Matebeland.
Her paternal uncle Sibanengi Guwa, who is Shereni Village head in Mberengwa said she was orphaned at a very young age and was left in the custody of her paternal aunt until she went truant and ran away from home.
“She is my niece, my elder brother’s child. This girl is of no fixed abode because if you are to have time with her, you will notice that there is something weird about her. Until recently, we had not seen or heard from her for around three to five years because she has been moving from one place to another all this time.
“Recently, she came with the police and reported her aunt to us for mistreating her, but her story was not coherent, which left us all puzzled. I cannot remember exactly where she was born but it should be in Mhandamabwe, Chivi because she came here after her parents passed on,” Guwa said.
More about the girl was dug out by the Marenga family in their pursuit of their baby’s whereabouts, as they had to travel all the way to Beitbridge following leads to where their baby could have been taken to.
The baby’s uncle, Davison Marenga said in Beitbridge, they found out that the girl was a known sex worker who plied business centres along the Masvingo-Beitbridge Highway.
“In Beitbridge that is where we got information that the girl was doing sex work along the Masvingo-Beitbridge highway. If you go to Chibi Turn Off, Rutenga and Mwenezi, you will hear about her.
“We then established that she was from Mberengwa, but had used a different name at Mberengwa Turn Off where she was doing sex work and was being referred to as Noria Dube (not her real name),” Marenga said.
Marenga said they then got a tip off that she had been seen in Mberengwa, where they rushed to and to their luck, found her together with the baby, around 6pm on Wednesday (April 12).
He said the lady who referred the girl for domestic work to the Marengas is from Bhuka, and had to pretend to be her relative to secure the job for her after she had allegedly been left in her custody by another elderly woman, and the Marengas had to send her transport money to go to Zvishavane to work as their child minder.
At Bhuka, the girl was allegedly doing sex work, and the lady probably wanted to help her out of sex work out of pity.
It also emerged that the girl’s rural home is in Mberengwa, had previously eloped with a man in Sovelele but left the ‘marriage’ last year and had planned to go back to her former in-laws claiming that when she left she was pregnant and had returned to leave their grandson, the Marenga baby.
“When she was questioned why she took the baby, she said she went out to coo the baby as well as familiarising with the place, after which she met a man with a car who proposed love to her and she ended up getting into the car with the baby.
“She said she then went with the man to his house but it got late before she returned home so she got scared and decided to go to Mberengwa. The guy allegedly escorted her to Mberengwa Office where he left her and she stayed overnight doing sex work and the following morning walked to York where her sister stayed and stayed overnight.
“She then said she proceeded to Jeka where a well-wisher helped her, and she allegedly left the baby for most of the day soliciting for clients, then proceeded to Sovelele where she wanted to leave the baby at her ex-inlaws’ place,” Marenga narrated.
Marenga said the girl told them that she was feeding the baby maheu all the time she was with him, to keep him hydrated as she had no access to milk.
It also emerged that her paternal aunt confirmed that she started sex work at a very young age, around Grade 5, and left home when she was Grade 6, moving from place to place.
The girl is reportedly in police custody, and when contacted for comment, Midlands Police Spokesperson Inspector Emmanuel Mahoko said he was going to release details before end of day on Thursday (April 13).
“We will publish the details in due course after we have finished compiling. We will let you know of the details, Mahoko said.
