GABORONE — A double amputee Zimbabwean man, Gift Ncube, may find himself homeless after a Good Samaritan decided to kick him out of her house in Botswana last week.
Things took a bad turn for Ncube following an article published by The Monitor on his plight alleging that his caregiver was blackmailing and exploiting him.
Before serving Ncube with an eviction notice, his Motswana guardian kicked him out of the house upon her discovery of the published article.
Ncube and his girlfriend claim to have spent the night in a wheelbarrow on Monday after Nametso Nkarabang locked them out of their rented two-room house.
Nkarabang demanded that they leave her property as they had destroyed her reputation, The Monitor learnt.
She however, opened up the rented two-room house to the couple the following day, serving them with the notice to vacate the premises by June 30.
Ncube said that his surgical scars got swollen that night as he slept outside in the extreme cold.
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He said: “Nkarabang went to the Zimbabwean embassy where she told them that she no longer wanted anything to do with me, but they told her that they had nothing to do with the case as I was given to her by the Botswana government.”
He said that even though he does not have parents, he felt that it would be better to be taken back to Zimbabwe, as the pain he is going through was too much to bear.
“She then took me to the Foreign Affairs ministry where they told her to follow the same procedures she followed when she volunteered to take me in. I was hoping that we could work things out with her, but things had gotten worse as she locked me out of the house,” he said.
Nkarabang has written a letter to different government departments, the Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation ministry, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Botswana Police Service and Zimbabwe embassy withdrawing her involvement with Ncube and his continued stay in Botswana.
In a letter dated June 10 2014, Nkarabang stated that after learning of Ncube’s tragic circumstances and plight she volunteered to assist him.
She said that she provided him with accommodation and homecare for the duration of his stay in Botswana pending conclusion of a criminal case in which he is a victim.
The letter stated that she approached the addresses of the correspondents to whom she expressed willingness to care for Ncube to her best ability and within her limited means.
“Regrettably, and more fully it appears from The Monitor newspaper dated Monday June 9 2014, a rift has seemingly emerged between the said Gift Ncube and myself as is indeed evident from remarks about me which are attributed to him in the same newspaper,” the letter read.
“The statements attributed to Gift Ncube are even worse, untrue. More importantly, such statements have proved totally corrosive of the original altruism, compassion and sincerity, which moved me to come to his aid and assistance.
“I hereby request my release from all assurances and obligations flowing from my assumption of responsibility for his accommodation and care and would prefer that he continues his stay in Botswana independent of any commitment or responsibility on my part,” she stated.
She wrote that she would let Ncube stay in her house until end of June after which he would have to find alternative accommodation.
Attempts to get a comment from Nkarabang failed as she told The Monitor “to write whatever it wants because it published the story even though I pleaded with the paper not to publish it”.
Efforts to get a comment from the Zimbabwean embassy and the deputy chief of protocol in the Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation ministry were futile. Both said that they did not want to discuss the issue with the media.
However, a representative from the Zimbabwean embassy whose name is known to this publication, said that they did not want to jeopardise their relationship with Botswana.
He said that they had been co-operating well regarding the issue and that they would find a way forward. He said that they did not want to make things worse for any of the two parties.
Nkarabang met Ncube in February 2014 following an article published in one of the local newspapers after his employer shot him in Radisele last year leading to his double amputation.
— Mmegi
