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Nqobile Tshili Chronicle Correspondent
THE skull, arms and lower body of an 86-year-old man from Matobo District, who went missing about two weeks ago, have been found after dogs were seen feasting on his limbs. The body parts were found scattered over a radius of about five kilometres.

The search is still on for Philip Ngwenya’s torso and one of his feet.

He went missing on October 30, and Hlabalibomvu villagers under Chief Bhidi had searched for him in vain.

Last week on Thursday villagers were horrified to see dogs fighting over a human arm.

This forced villagers who had been hunting for Ngwenya to use the dogs to track his other remains.

Through the tracking system, his skull, lower body and arms were discovered from different areas.

His brother, Enock Ngwenya, narrated the family’s anguish in discovering Philip’s body piece by piece.

He said because of advanced age, Ngwenya was losing his memory and the family suspected he could have been lost on his way home.

Enock said his brother’s body had already decomposed and carrion eaters like vultures had already devoured it.

He said the family did not suspect foul play as Ngwenya would from time to time wander from home and get lost.

“Villagers often assisted him to return home,” said Enock.

“He was now very old and was losing his memory. Also his eye sight was now very poor and we suspect that he might have got lost while in the bush”.

Enock said for the past two weeks, search teams comprising villagers combed through the bush to find Ngwenya but all was in vain.

“From October, 31 we spent hours searching for him but we couldn’t locate him.

“On Thursday last week, we made a breakthrough after we saw dogs carrying a human arm. We decided to put chains on the dogs so that we could trace his other remains,” said Enock.

“On Saturday we found his skull and yesterday (Wednesday) we found his lower body. All these pieces were scattered in different locations.”

He said after picking the arm, they took it to Maphisa Hospital and informed the police about the incident.

“Police also brought their search teams who assisted in searching for the body yesterday. Today we have found part of his foot and we are still waiting for police to come and take it,” Enock said adding that they are waiting for the police to complete their investigations before burying his remains.

Acting police spokesperson for Matabeleland South Sergeant Thabani Mkhwananzi yesterday said it was too early to conclude that the body parts belong to Ngwenya.

“I can confirm that we have found body parts in the area following a missing person report that was made. But we can’t just conclude that they belong to the missing person before obtaining a postmortem report,” said Sgt Mkhwananzi.