A woman of about 70 years, who was chained and confined in a room for five years in Elukhwatini in Mpumalanga has finally been rescued by officials of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice.
Hlengiwe Dhlamini is currently on admission at the Embhuleni Hospital after she was rescued on Sunday morning.
In connection with the case, SAPS has arrested two persons including a biological son of the woman, who were believed to have subjected her to the inhuman treatment
The the old woman was found nak_ed in chains in a room which had no windows. She was said to have been dumped there by her son simply because she was behaving strangely.
The woman was sleeping on the bare floor with a concrete block as her pillow and attending to nature’s call in the same room. She had grown very lean and lost her human dignity at the time of her rescue.
One could even touch her bones as she had lost all flesh due to hunger, making it impossible for her to walk.
Residents told the paper that Hlengiwe used to be a businesswoman in Elukhwatini until she found herself in a terrible situation which portrayed her as a mentally deranged person and she was brought home by her son and locked up in the room so as to prevent her from coming out.
She told her rescuers that she had a daughter whose husband was a womanizer. The old lady said her daughter, now deceased, came to complain about her husband’s conduct to her and therefore she decided to help her out in an effort to protect her daughter’s marriage.
The victim said she advised her daughter to bring the clothes of the husband so that she could lead her to a Sangoma to change the negative lifestyle of the husband to make him focus only on her.
The old woman said the daughter brought a smock belonging to the husband which unfortunately happened to be a ‘war’ smock bequeathed to him by his fore fathers.
She said a week after visiting the sangoma to perform the rituals, her daughter died.
Some residents said that shortly after the surprise death of her daughter, the woman, then a business woman, also started behaving strangely.
She was later brought to home by her son and confined in the room in chains without regular supply of food while the son worked somewhere else.
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