“Please, my beloved daughter, come back home because we love you so much. If you are still alive, come back let’s talk and solve the problem instead of run away from it.” This is a daily prayer of a desperate mother, Sasa Gumbu (40) of Ngudza village, north of Thohoyandou, whose daughter, Jennifer (20), disappeared in January 2005.

An unemployed mother of four, Sasa poured out her cry to Mirror: “Jennifer was a brilliant child who passed Grade 12 with flying colours in 2003. In 2004, she studied for a pre-nursing course in Polokwane and told me she wanted to continue with auxiliary nursing studies in Gauteng the following year. In January 2005, she went to Gauteng and she called me to tell me that she had been admitted at Germiston Hospital College where they needed R8 000 tuition fees.”

Gumbu said she tried to raise the money although she is unemployed, for the future of her daughter. “I deposited R5 000 in her account in January 2005. I then again deposited R1 500 in February that year after she called. Since then, I never heard anything from her and I don’t know whether she is still alive or not.” Gumbu said what surprised her was that the R1 500 she deposited in her daughter’s account was never withdrawn. “After making some follow-ups with her bank, I discovered that the money was never withdrawn and this gives me sleepless nights because I suspect there might be something wrong with her.”

The desperate weeping mother says she also suspects that her daughter might have misused the money that was meant for tuition and she might be afraid to come and face her. “If she is not dead, she is on drugs and might have misused the money earmarked for her education. I have already forgiven her and she needs to come back home so that we can solve the problem. I was just trying to build her future although I am poor but it seems she was not interested.”

Gumbu claims she went to Thohoyandou SAPS in April 2005 to open a missing person’s file but she was turned away. “I was told to go and open a case in Gauteng, because my daughter disappeared there. I am unemployed and cannot afford transport money to Gauteng. All I needed was for the Thohoyandou police to assist me in connecting me with their Gauteng counterparts who would assist me in tracing my daughter.

Insp Thivhulawi Tshilate of the Vhembe Police said Ms Gumbu should go to the Thohoyandou SAPS to register a missing person because community members have the right to open cases anywhere in the country. “If she is telling the truth, it was unprofessional that she was turned away at Thohoyandou SAPS. The case can be transferred to any police station in the country.” Sasa can be contacted at 073 623 7489.