• THE 14-year-old boy will be moved to a children’s shelter.

By CHILA NAMAIKO –
THE Mazabuka Social Welfare Department will transfer a 14-year-old teenager who was found tied to a tree in the bush in Magoye area three weeks ago, to Anthon Children’s Village in Ndola.
Police suspect the boy was tied to a tree near Magoye stream in Tandabale area by his relatives. He was discovered by a passerby, Holy Kalonga, with both hands bound.
He is currently being looked after by the district Child Protection Committee.
District Social Welfare Officer Elizabeth Mzeche said in an interview yesterday that the department had secured a place at Anthon Children’s Village where he would be looked after.
“We have secured a place for the boy at Anthon Children’s Village and right now we are just making some logistical arrangements so that we take him from Mazabuka here to Ndola anytime this week,” she said.
At the time he was found in the bush, he was running a high temperature due to his mental condition. He was currently lodged at Mazabuka General Hospital after being discharged from the same hospital.
Ms Mzeche said the boy was currently under the care of the department but feared that if he stayed in the hospital for a long time, he would contract some diseases.
The child was still unable to walk and speak and only knew how to crawl hence, the department securing him a place at the children’s village in Ndola as he required decent accommodation.
The grandmother had appeared three weeks ago to claim him but she was equally faced with financial challenges and was appealing to well-wishers for assistance for the boy.
The woman, of Lutambo Village in Chief Hamaundu’s area in Pemba, who has been looking after him, was only told about his disappearance after she was discharged from Choma General Hospital where she was admitted for some weeks.
The boy’s mother was mentally-ill, she left him when he was five-years old, and her whereabouts were not known.