By CHILA NAMAIKO-
THE grandmother of a teenager who was found tied to a tree in the bush in Mazabuka two weeks ago has surfaced to claim the 14-year-old boy who was being looked after by the district Child Protection Committee.
Police suspect Canicius Mweemba was tied to a tree near Magoye stream in Tandabale area by his relatives.
He was discovered by a passerby, Holy Kalonga, around 11:00 hours on Wednesday last week, with both hands bound.
District Social Welfare Department officer, Elizabeth Mzeche confirmed yesterday that the grandmother of the boy, Selina Hankola, 58, came to claim him on Saturday around 11:00 hours.
She said Ms Hankola, of Lutambo Village in Chief Hamaundu’s area in Pemba, who has been looking after Canicius, was only told about his disappearance after she was discharged from Choma General Hospital where she was admitted for some weeks.
Ms Hankola was said to have been informed about the incident by a local village headman that Canicius was reported in the media to have been found in the bush and was now under the care of the Social Welfare Department.
“The sad part is that Canicius’ mother, Maggie Munanushiya, is also mentally ill. She left him when he was five years old and her whereabouts are not known, but he is being looked after by his grandmother,” Ms Mzeche said.
His father passed on and his mother was the first born daughter to Ms Hankola, who had six children. Canicius was the surviving child of Ms Munanushiya after the death of her first child.
The welfare office and the Victim Support Unit (VSU) suspect that Canicius’s mother could have picked him from Pemba and went with him to Magoye where he was later discovered in the bush.
At the time he was found in the bush, Canicius was sick with high temperature due to his mental condition. He is currently lodged at Mazabuka General Hospital after being discharged from the same hospital at the weekend.
The committee comprising, among other departments, officers from the Social Welfare, VSU, as well as Chiefs and Traditional Affairs officer Chipo Mfula had also instituted investigations to establish whether Ms Hankola was the boy’s real grandmother as at the time she went to meet him at the hospital he could not recognise her.
“The boy is lodged at Mazabuka Hospital although he has been discharged, we can’t allow his grandmother to take him. We have to assess her home as a committee because we don’t want him to be confined in a house or stigmatised by other people,” she said.
Canisius requires decent accommodation, food, clothes and protection before reuniting with his family in Pemba, hence the committee is working hard to ensure his rights were safeguarded.
Ms Hankola is equally faced with financial challenges and there is need for well-wishers to come on board and assist her to look after the boy.