The mother of a 16-year-old girl who disappeared without a trace in July last year says that, deep down in her heart, she believes that her teenage girl will come back home alive one day. Ms Rendani Mushaphi (38), a mother of three from Mulodi village in the Thengwe area, said in an interview that her daughter, Tshavhungwe Mmbengwa, had disappeared on 22 July last year shortly after she had returned from school.
"It was very cold on that day, and I was relaxing in my bedroom. She just told me where she put the change from the pocket money that I gave her in the morning, before she disappeared," she said. She added that after searching for her without success later that day, she opened a case of a missing person at the Mutale Police Station.
"Until today, there is no sign of where my daughter is. I keep on dreaming about her coming back home to me," she said. She added that in February she had received a call from a woman from Tshakhuma, saying that she had spotted a girl who looked like Tshavhungwe who was living with a dangerous criminal in that area.
"This was after I posted her pictures on social media. The woman told me to bring the police as the guy is a very dangerous criminal, but I went there alone on the very same day, but unfortunately, I found that she was not the one," she said. Mushaphi is pleading with whoever has her daughter to bring her home. "Please, I beg you in the name of God, bring her home," she said.
Speaking on a national radio station on Tuesday night, the spokesperson for Save the Children South Africa, Mr Konanani Mudau, said that the number of children who disappeared in the country was increasing every year. "It is very painful that 30% of those children are never found or found dead," he said.
When asked what the main causes of the children's disappearance were, he said three main reasons existed. Children are kidnapped to assist with drug peddling, they are used to claim a ransom, or they get used for human trafficking.