16 Jan 2013

When Ms Kelebogile Nkobela of Moatshe ward in Lerala left home nearly two weeks ago, she was in the company of other women. They chit chatted about this and that, as they excitedly prepared to go phane worm harvesting.

They all left for the forest on December 28 taking their tools to set up camp.

Previously arranged transport took them to the campsite and they commenced to set camp. Ms Nkobela guessed she would be at the site for the next three weeks.

The following day, she woke up with the birds and took her bucket with the intention to fill it up with phane worm before the sun started beating hard on the mophane bushveld.

On that day, the harvest was good, all the mophane trees were full of mophane worms. Ms Nkobela went for the mature ones.

She kept harvesting and harvesting. Humming a soft tune, she went from tree to tree, picking the worm.  She did not notice the ghostly silence where she was. She was all alone and never realised.

Hours later, she turned around to go back to the camp. Suddenly she realised she could not find her way back. She was lost. The strong woman that she is, she was not worried as she knew she would reach camp in no time.

Fortitude gave way to worry and worry to raw panic as she combed the forest for the camp. Not so much as a human voice came her way save for the birds that know every route in the bush.

Night time came and she decided to stop searching. She retreated under, expecting some wild animal to pounce on her at any moment. 

She lived to see the following day. Only the chirping birds and insects kept her company.

After searching for the whole day, she knew she would be spending another night under a tree.

Fatigue was beginning to set in, but she got up the following day and kept searching. Mercifully Providence ensured there was plenty of water – albeit often murky. So, whenever she came across a pool of dirty rain water, she knelt down and drank.

She knew she had to find something to eat, but the idea of picking a handful of wild berries did not appeal to her. All she needed was to reach camp.

Back at the camp, other harvesters abandoned harvesting the worm to search for her but to no avail. Her children and husband were notified about her disappearance and they too joined the search team but could not find her.

They reported the matter to the police who also could not find the 46 year-old woman after several days.

Her daughter, Ms Morongwa Reise was worried sick about her mother and had sleepless nights.

By day 11, Ms Nkobela was weak and  was sure she would be dead by end of that day. She staggered along though.

Whilst staggering, she came upon a herdman but would not tell him the truth about her whereabouts as she feared that the man might do something bad to her.

She said she was angry when the man kept questioning her to the extent that she denied being the missing woman.

However, the man ignored her obvious lies and quickly climbed a tree to search for network. He located it and immediately called his employer and informed him about the weak woman.

The employer wasted no time, but led other searchers to where the woman was. They found her intact and took her to hospital for examination.

Thus came to an end the search for Ms Nkobela, after 11 days during which her family endured painful anxiety and uncertainty.ENDS