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WOMAN FINDS HOME IN WAITING ROOM

21/11/2020 13:56:00 BY Bonsile Makhubu

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MBABANE – For almost two months now, a woman has been living and sleeping in a waiting room at Mvutshini in Ezulwini

The woman, who identified herself as Hloniphile Mabuza, said she would not leave the waiting room until a certain Mandla Dlamini fetched her.

It could not be immediately medically ascertained if she was mentally fit to go through an interview with the media; however, she did respond to questions that were posed to her.

Her story is that she hails from Siteki at a place called KaMzilikazi.

She said her parental home, where she used to stay before coming to Ezulwini, was located next to St. Boniface Primary School.

arrived

“I arrived here about two months ago and I have been staying here at the waiting room since then,” she said.

She alleged that she was dropped off by Dlamini and she was still waiting for him.

“The last time I saw Dlamini was the day he dropped me off here,” she said.

Mabuza said she has three children; two boys and a girl. She gave their names and said one of them was attending school at St. Paul’s primary in Siteki.

When asked what she did on a daily basis while at her new place of abode, Mabuza said she wakes up at about 6am and go to a nearby river where she takes a bath.

“I then take a walk around Ezulwini and come back here to rest. Then in the evenings I sleep here on the concrete seat until the next morning,” the woman related.

She said she would eat anything that good Samaritans gave her.

She said her siblings were Mfaniseni Mabuza, who works around Ezulwini and Bhekithemba Mabuza who works in South Africa.

Sources from Mvutshini and surrounding areas said the woman has been there for over two months.

“She stays in the waiting room and she takes a bath right there using water she collects with the two-litre bottles that she keeps there,” said one of those who had witnessed the woman’s stay in the area.

This witness said Mabuza is often reprimanded by public transport staff for often taking a bath in the waiting room in front them.

ignore

“Kombi conductors who pass around in the morning always shout at her, claiming that what she did was a taboo, but she would ignore them and continue to bath while everybody watched,” said the witness.

Skimza Nkuna, the Bucopho of KaMzilikazi falls, was requested to shed some light on the matter.

At first, he confirmed the existence of the areas which Mabuza had identified as her home.

He said he even knew some of the people that Mabuza had named.

He promised to visit the homestead Hloniphile identified on Friday morning and find out if they knew anything about her.

Through Nkuna’s assistance, this reporter eventually located Mabuza’s maternal family in Siteki, KaMzilikazi, exactly where she had directed.

estimated

Her aunt Longobozi Dlamini said she knew her and that she left KaMzilikazi late in 2019.

She estimated her to be around 50 years.

“She is my late sister’s daughter and she has never been mentally stable ever since she was young. Her mother had a similar problem too and she passed away a long time ago,” Longobozi said.

She said her niece had about six children, three of who lived at their parental home in Lavumisa.

She said they were not aware that Mabuza was staying in a waiting room by the roadside.

“We were not even aware that she was around Ezulwini. She has a nephew who lives around Lobamba and he is a Dlamini,” the elderly woman said when she was told that Mabuza kept saying she was dropped off there by a certain babe Dlamini and she was waiting for him to fetch her.

She said they had not reported the matter to the police because they were not even aware that she was stranded somewhere. The elderly woman said one of Mabuza’s brothers was in South Africa while the one who was in the country was also unstable mentally.

“I will negotiate with a local businessman and find out if he can assist me with transport to fetch her,” she said.

Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati said Mabuza had not yet been reported missing.

circumstances

She said under normal circumstances, the police officers of the area would notice such people and attend to them.

“The police should know nomadic and mentally-challenged people around their area. So that if they spot someone they are not familiar with they approach them and intervene,” Vilakati said.

She said it was not safe for Mabuza to sleep in the open at night because she was exposed to a lot of danger.

Vilakati promised that the police would work on the matter.

When this reporter paid Mabuza a visit again yesterday morning at around 7:30am she was not there, but only her items were found.

At around 10am, she had returned to the waiting room and was found asleep.