DAD LEAVES SON (4) ALONE FOR WEEKS

MANZINI – At the age of four, no child should be left to look after himself and should never be left alone but one father did just that; for close to a month.

With the harsh cold winter days and nights, the boy survived through the mercy of neighbours who after seeing him sitting or playing alone outside the one-room flat would bathe and offer him some food.
In the evening, the boy would get into the flat his father shared with a friend and who at times would have his girlfriend over.

Inside the flat is divided by a make-shift curtain, which distinguishes each property.
There is no telling what the boy was exposed to if the father’s roommate enjoyed a heated moment with his partner, who has a two-year-old baby.
The room has one small window. 

A few centimetres from the door, a small old mattress covered with an old blanket is seen.
This bed is shared by the boy and his father on days he would be around and according to neighbours, even this set was unacceptable.
The other bed, which is used by the father’s roommate, is obscured by the curtain.

At one corner is a makeshift  cupboard, which has pots and other kitchen utensils.
Notably, the concrete slab floor has visible cracks and is covered with a small mat.
According to neighbours, the father neither left any money with his roommate to support his son nor did he leave food with anyone for him.

They said he would just disappear and sometimes come to check on him but disappear again after spending a few hours if not shorter.
Worse is that the flat is situated in the densely populated Logoba Township, a few kilometres from the Manzini city centre.

With temperatures dropping yesterday, neighbours decided that they had had enough as the Social Welfare Department was alerted of social ills and abuse the boy was being subjected to.          
Social workers from Manzini arrived at the Mndzebele homestead to rescue the boy after being informed that he had been left alone for four consecutive days despite the harsh weather conditions.  

The landlord, who identified herself as Make Mndzebele, said the boy’s father would sometimes leave his son with the friend whom he shared the flat with, in the one-room flat.   
“In the past month, he would leave child with the friend maybe for a day or two and this would happen frequently but we got worried when he disappeared for four straight days this week.”
During the father’s absence, Mndzebele said her family gave the child some food and made sure he had clean clothes, adding that the father’s roommate also shared his plate with the boy but not on a daily basis as he also has his own family to feed.

She said what bothered them most was that the father had been taking good care of his son ever since he was dumped by the mother at the age of six months.
“I do not know what has gotten in his head these days,” she wondered as she further revealed that unlike some men, the father used to cook, bathe and even wash the boy’s nappies without a problem.
Mndzebele, who asked not to have her picture published, stressed that the young father had been a good figure until he met some new friends. 

The elderly Mndzebele described the father of the child as a hustler, using a vernacular term, ‘uyaphanda’.
The shocking conditions the four-year-old was said to be living under come hardly a week after it was revealed how a two-year-old boy, who had been living in appalling conditions, was also taken to a place of safety by social workers.
The minor, who resided with his father, was said to have shared a tiny filthy room with chickens, scattered with clothes and unwashed kitchen utensils.  

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