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Leonard Ncube and Adelaide Moyo Chronicle Reporters—-
A 16-YEAR-OLD Victoria Falls boy is lucky to be alive after two of his friends allegedly shoved him into a boot of a broken down car and kept him there for almost four hours resulting in him losing consciousness. The boy whose arm was also fractured, was rushed to hospital where he was admitted and resuscitated overnight.

His cousin Mayibongwe Ndlovu, 19, and Motion Dzikiti, 22, a neighbour, were briefly detained by the police on kidnapping charges, but were set free after their victim’s family opted to withdraw the charges. The victim’s family reported that he had been kidnapped after some tots said that he had been put in the boot of a car but no one suspected they meant a broken down car in their yard.

Neighbours and his family thought he had been seized by strangers and a report was made to the police. Police officer commanding Victoria Falls district Chief Superintendent Jairos Chiwona yesterday said they received a report on a boy who was placed in a car boot for hours. He said investigations were in progress.

A Chronicle news crew visited the boy’s place of residence in Chinotimba and found him with his arm in a sling following his ordeal that saw him being hospitalised and discharged last Tuesday, but has still to continue seeing doctors to monitor the fractured arm.

He narrated the events from the time he left the house to go to a tuck shop a few houses away until the time they shoved him into the boot when he fainted because of the punishing heat. “I was at Mzilikazi tuck shop when Mayibongwe came running, grabbed and twisted my hand. I fought back and freed myself and went away. I never suspected that he could be up to something bad,” said the Form Three pupil at Mosi-oa-Tunya High School.

“As I was walking away, Mayibongwe was joined by Motion and they started chasing me. I thought they were playing but they tripped me to the ground. Before I knew it, they were twisting my arm as I called for help but people ignored me because they thought we were playing since we stay together.” He alleged Mayibongwe and Dzikiti dragged him to a car parked in his parents’ yard and pushed him into the boot before closing it.

“I screamed for help but the two started banging the boot to stifle the noise I was making. I think I fainted and I don’t recall what happened later as I only found myself in hospital later at night,” he said. He said the three of them usually play together but not in the manner they conducted themselves that day.

His mother said although she withdrew the case, she was still in shock. “This is a very difficult issue to deal with. We withdrew the charges because Mayibongwe is my brother’s son and the sight of him going to jail would have haunted the family,” she said. “They insist they were playing and we wonder what would have happened if no one had raised the alarm. When we took him out he was unconscious while his body was cold as if he was dead. He was still unconscious when we left him in the hospital at night and nurses said he might had suffered from shock and suffocation.”

Doctors said he twisted some muscles on the right shoulder, his mother said. She said she last saw her boy at 3PM on the day he was “kidnapped” when he left the house to go to a tuck-shop a few houses away. She said they saw Mayibongwe and Dzikiti sitting on the wreckage of the car but never suspected that they were guarding her son who was inside.

“When my other brother passed by after 7PM, some children told him that (the boy) was in the boot. In disbelief he opened and was shocked to find him motionless. Mayibongwe and Dzikiti fled from the scene and that is when we went to report to the police, leading to their arrest,” she said.