Desperate and heart-broken Gogo Deliwe Shomwe appe...

Desperate and heart-broken Gogo Deliwe Shomwe appeals for help to find her grandson

Patricia Mashiri

The tone in her voice and her facial expressions uttered how desperate and heart-broken she is.

Her sad contagious mood engulfed the whole place where the families of the missing person where gathered. The pauses in her speech while narrating her story could tell that she was trying to hold back tears in front of her colleagues in the room.

Gogo Deliwe Shomwe from Epworth narrated how her grandson skipped the border into South Africa and never heard from him again.

Hope Mafema went to South Africa in search of greener pastures in the company of his friends.

Hope is her daughter’s son. His mother died while he was still a toddler and Gogo Shomwe feels that it is her responsibility to look for her missing grandchild.

Hope might have passed away but she still has hope that one day she will find him and will find closure even after seeing his corpse.

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Hope went to the neighbouring country in 2009 as Zimbabwe had very little, if anything to offer at that time owing to the obtaining hyperinflation and apparent economic meltdown that forced people to search for better options.

“Hope was staying at our rural home in Seke and he visited me in Epworth, bidding farewell and informing me that he was going to South Africa with his friends. I do not know the friends.

“He said he was going to build a beautiful house in Seke as well as taking good care of me. I heard that he arrived safely in South Africa by a relative who saw him but could not know where he went with the friends he left Zimbabwe with,” Gogo Shomwe narrates her ordeal.

The Zimbabwe Red Cross Society hosted the third International Conference of the families of the missing persons, this time with a bit of a difference with the intention of wanting families to meet worldwide and share their experiences.

Most foreigners who go into other countries have a tendency of changing names to suit the new environment. Gogo Shomwe thinks that her grandson had changed his name.

“I heard he changed his name and took his father’s name but the problem is I do not know his father’s name nor his relatives. I also do not know if he still uses Hope as his first name or he changed completely,” said Gogo Shomwe in despair.

“This makes it more difficult for me to look for him. I will not rest till I find him. I just want closure of what happened to him,” Gogo Shomwe said.

When she received a call from Red Cross Society, she thought her grandson had been found. However, she still hopes that she will find Hope through their initiative, which helps them to interact with people all over the world.

Speaking during the third international conference of the family for missing people on behalf of the Secretary-General, Zimbabwe Red Cross Society, Human Resources and Administration Director, Geshum Hombarume, said this year’s offer was a bit different as it offers families of the missing persons a chance to meet other families all over the world and share experiences.

“This conference returns this year as a beacon of hope, a platform that transcends borders, offering a safe space for families of missing persons worldwide.

“It serves as a network and knowledge-sharing platform, providing an opportunity for families to connect, share experiences, and offer and receive inspiration from others navigating similar challenges,” Hombarume said.

The Zimbabwe Red Cross Society also have some success stories of families who found their relatives after being missing for a long time. This gives hope to others that are still looking for theirs.

Also speaking on the same event, Assistant Commissioner Crispen Lifa said it was of paramount importance for families to report missing persons so that the police plays its role in helping them locate them.

“When families report the missing of their loved one thorough investigations are carried out and at the end of it all, they will have answers of what happened.

“We are just here to support and ensure that we work as a team and come up with ways of assisting one another, at the same time encouraging members of the public to report all missing person to various police stations across the country so that it is recorded on our missing persons forms and investigations are carried out,” Ass Comm said.

The International Organisation of Migration in a released document titled Families of Missing Migrants: Their Search for Answers, the Impact of Loss and Recommendations for Improved Support reported that since 2014, IOM has documented deaths and disappearance of more than 42 000 migrants worldwide.

The report also states that most Zimbabweans left the country due to the deteriorating socio-economic situation, the majority crossing to South Africa.

“While complete data on the number of people who died attempting to cross from Zimbabwe to South Africa do not exist, IOM’s Missing Migrants Project has recorded 21 cases of people who drowned in the Limpopo River while attempting to cross the border between the two countries irregularly between 2014 and 2020.”