With a special police task team nationally still trying to track down the Moti brothers and their seven abductors, a moving poem has captured the anguish the four boys and their parents, Nazim and Shakira, must be going through.
The boys, who were kidnapped on their way to their Polokwane, Limpopo, school last week Wednesday, and their parents are held in high esteem in the Nirvana community and a Twitter user, @zohramotala, posted the following poem last night:
My heart aches for the kids who thought it was a normal day going to school.
My heart aches for the boys who are locked up with no escape.
My heart aches for the parents of those boys.
My heart aches for the 15 year old who has the responsibility to look after the others.
For the 13 year old who doesn’t know what to do.
For the 11 year old who is so confused and just wants to go home.
For the 6 year old who misses his mum.
My heart aches for the boys who can’t sleep every night.
I pray for these boys more than I pray for myself.
Ya Allah. Please bring them home.
There has been no update on the kidnapping of 15-year-old Zia, 13-year-old Alaan, 11-year-old Zayyad and six-year-old Zidan Moti since Police Minister Bheki Cele said on Monday that police are making progress in a ’’difficult case’’. There has also been no confirmation of a ransom demand.
The South African Christian Leadership wrote in a Twitter post today: “It is unacceptable that the Moti brothers have still not been located. We are supposed to wait on the Police, but we do not know about their effectiveness (they were not very effective before the July riots so not sure what confidence we are supposed to have now). The public needs updates.”
In the upmarket suburb of Nirvana, parents have rallied around the boys’ parents, YOU magazine reported.
A resident, who prefers to remain anonymous and described the brothers as “the most respectful kids you’ll ever meet”, said: “On Fridays you would always find them at the mosque – we saw them there every week. Something like this cuts across all lines. People from all parts of Polokwane have gathered to pray for the boys’ safe return.”
Mywish Muyengwa, a mother of a Curro Heuwelkruin pupil, said: “One of my children is in Grade 5 with Zayyad and had nightmares about getting grabbed by unknown men.”
Private investigator Mike Bolhuis told the Saturday Star it’s unlikely that the kidnappers would harm the children:
“In most cases, they don’t harm the victims because they have the most valuable thing on earth that the family possesses and that’s their loved ones and they want their money.
“It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t ever happen though. We have had cases where the victims have been beaten.
“If the kidnappers have to go to such extents, it’s most likely because the family refuses to pay up and also if they are sure they cannot be tracked and traced.”