Stolen children to return to South Africa

THE Department of Social Welfare is in talks with their South African counterparts over the repatriation of two children believed to have been stolen by Bongani Ncube of Cowdray Park, Bulawayo, from his South African girlfriend three years ago.

Authorities want the mother, Anna Ngobeni, to come to Zimbabwe and clarify the identity of her children who are now in custody of a children's home in Bulawayo.

Ncube, 37, originally from Malunku area reportedly had an extra-marital affair with Ngobeni while in the neighbouring country and fled with the boy aged 12 and 10-year-old girl after the woman's husband, Samuel Chauke discovered the illicit affair in 2011.

Ngobeni reportedly confessed about the relationship to her husband and the couple tried but failed to get back its children.
Ncube hid the boy and the girl at his rural home under the custody of his mother Joyce Dube for three years.

The Department of Social Welfare took the children to SOS Village in Bulawayo where they are being kept. Police have said they will not detain Ncube until the mother is located.

Said Provincial Social Welfare Officer for Matabeleland North, Macmon Chirinzepi: "The children are comfortable in our hands except that they need to be reunited with their parents. Our head office has communicated with their counterparts in South Africa with a view to facilitate reunion of the children with their parents. The South African embassy has also taken up the issue while Interpol is helping locate the mother," he added.

There are indications Ngobeni and Chauke moved from Vusimusi, Tembisa, and police in the neighbouring country are reportedly tracing their whereabouts.

"Police in Tembisa once tried to accompany the father to Zimbabwe but later dropped the issue as the man appeared reluctant. They are now trying to trace the woman," said a source in South Africa.

Ngobeni is originally from Giyani in Limpopo Province. Police Officer Commanding Lupane District, Chief Superintendent Johannes Govo said they were waiting for the mother to be located.

"We are still to get an update from Interpol but we hope everything would be done quickly because the man is out of custody and might flee.  We can only make an arrest if it is proven the children are not his," he said.

Ncube had brought the children alongside another boy aged 15 in May 2011. The boy, born of a different woman, reportedly fled back to the neighbouring country after the death of his mother.

Contrary to Ncube's claims that he had an open relationship with Ngobeni and sired two children with her, it emerged Chauke is the father.

While Ncube claimed he brought the children to Zimbabwe with the blessing of their mother, reports from the South Africa media indicate that the children had visited him at his Tembisa residence in Johannesburg and he fled with them after Chauke discovered the affair.

Ncube would buy the boy and girl clothes each time they visited him and he fled with them when they had come in the company of their elder brother, Busani, 18, it is said. Ngobeni reportedly confessed to her husband and asked Ncube to return the children, but he refused, it is alleged.

Ncube says he could not take back the children to their mother because the Limpopo River was flooded and also because he had no money to transport them as they illegally crossed into Zimbabwe.

He alleges that Chauke is Ngobeni's ex-husband who is trying to fix him.

Ncube claims his late father and younger sister, who is based in South Africa, knew about the children but his mother Dube told Chronicle the children always asked to go to their parents.

The boy also accused Ncube of forcing them to accept his surname.  Ncube and Ngobeni reportedly started the affair in 2002 in Tembisa.