Elderly man goes berserk over lost chameleon

GWERU'S Kudzanai Bus Terminus in Gweru became a theatre of the absurd yesterday when an elderly Chiredzi man brought business to a standstill searching for his lost chameleon.

Takura Mazungunye, 70, claims he surrendered his bags to touts for them to load on a Harare-bound bus.

Chronicle caught up with Mazungunye at Gweru Central Police Station where he had gone to file a report of his missing bag and chameleon.

"I asked the boys to help me load my two bags on the bus but they stole them instead. They pretended to be loading the bags yet they had other ideas. On my way to Harare I had this feeling that something was amiss and I felt I had lost something so precious to me," said Mazungunye.

He said upon arrival in Harare he discovered his bags were missing and decided to come back in search of them on the following morning.

"When I arrived at Kudzanai Bus Terminus, I only found one bag. I discovered that they (the touts) had tampered with my bag. My chameleon was missing. Nothing is left of me now," said Mazungunye, almost in tears.

Mazungunye also said when he arrived at the bus terminus, the crowd started to poke fun at him. He said this made him conclude that the people at the terminus had opened his bag.

"What showed me that they opened my bag is they started ridiculing me shouting, ‘sekuru vaya vezvinhu zvavo vauya'" said Mazungunye.

The elderly man said he had picked the chameleon in Gokwe.

When asked why he badly wanted his chameleon back, Mazungunye said it was his charm to scare away snakes that were attacking his chicken at his rural home in Chiredzi.

"Back home there are lots of snakes that attack our chicken so I use these chameleons to chase them away," he said.

The bag was also full of herbs, rags, animal horns and tails, among other things, leaving many to suspect that he was a traditional healer.

Vendors who operate at Kudzanai Bus Terminus said Mazungunye started demanding his chameleon from the touts and even staged frenzied moves to emphasize how much he wanted his missing ‘friend'.

"When he arrived at the terminus, the old man started demanding his chameleon and he even removed his jacket and shirt and started sprinkling water all over the place, leading to the crowd running away," said one of the vendors at the terminus, Lindiwe Mahachi.

Bus operators and commuters quickly gathered to watch the drama unfold, said Mahachi. The vendors and touts said the chameleon was stashed in a 500ml Coca-Cola bottle.

They said the little creature was served with mealie-meal by its master before it got crashed by a Bulawayo-bound Zupco bus.

Chamunorwa Chimbande, an informal trader at the terminus said Mazungunye threatened people he suspected to have caused his chameleon's death to endure endless suffering and torture.

"He said whoever opened his bag and caused its death will replace the chameleon as his friend and will be sorry for the rest of his life," said Chimbande.

Mugove Mukaro, a tout, says the old man deserted his bags on Monday after he was charged by touts who carried them to the bus.

He said the old man told the touts he did not have money and a disagreement arose.

"Touts charged him for their service and the old man told them he was not in a position to pay them. He then left the bags with them since the touts were refusing to surrender them," said Mukaro.