Jozini parents reunited with kidnapped son after 9 years
The parents of a young boy from Jozini, in KwaZulu-Natal, who was kidnapped when he was six days old are over the moon after the child’s safe return home.
They have thanked the Shembe prophet, known as the king of Nazareth uNyazilwezulu, to whom they went to consult for help. The couple says Nyazilwezulu promised them that the boy would return home safely one day. A prophecy that has come true.
Nhlakanipho is now nine years old.
He was abducted by a woman who had promised to help his mother register his birth.
She was visiting Jozini at the time of the crime and while on their way to the home affairs department – Khanyisile, the kidnapper, asked Nhlakanipho’s mother to go buy something to eat at the nearby shops before disappearing with the boy.
The father of the child, Thokozani Gumede, has told Maputaland Community Radio News that they had spent a lot of money trying to find Nhlakanipho.
Nhlakanipho’s mother, Fikelephi Mpotshane-Gumede, has thanked the Jozini police and everyone who has tried helping them find their son.
She has warned young women not to trust strangers with their children. Mpotshane-Gumede has also called on young people to draw closer to God and forget the pleasures of the world.
The former boyfriend of the alleged kidnapper, Joseph Ndala, lived with the boy in Daveyton, eMaphupheni, and says he loved the boy like his own child.
He says the child’s abductor also had him fooled, pretending to be a good person while she was in fact a wolf in a sheep skin.
“She poisoned me and the child and then handed herself over to the police. The police came to our home and took me and Nhlakanipho to hospital. The child spent three weeks there and I was discharged after being treated.”
Ndala says Khanyisile confessed to a social worker that she had stolen the child and that’s the only time he learnt the truth about his beloved Nhlakanipho. The kidnapper had previously told him that the child was born of rape.
Ndala is urging other men to learn more about their partners and where they come from before settling down with them.
The spokesperson for the police in Jozini, Captain Senzo Gumede, says they worked tirelessly since 2011 to solve the case.
He has urged members of the public to be patient with the police as they work on other unresolved cases.