Mystery surrounds the alleged abduction and subsequent rescue of a granny at Dzondo Bridge at Lwamondo outside Thohoyandou.

Gogo Maria Livhusha of Tshifulanani was travelling with her husband and a driver from a traditional healer in the Malamulele area on Sunday. When nature called, she asked the driver to stop the car. That was the start of a six hour long ordeal for the family and the community.

It is alleged that while she was busy relieving her, two unknown men surprised her and abducted her.

Her husband, Joseph Livhusha, said he waited for a long time. “I became suspicious when she did not come back to the car after some time and I decided to follow her to the spot where she had gone. I was shocked not to find her there. He said he started to call her at the top of his voice, but she was nowhere to be found.

“What surprised me is the fact that even a man I found fishing next to the spot where she was, quickly disappeared and I was left all on my own, until other people heard my cries and rushed to the scene, That was the start of long fruitless hours of searching at the river and thick bushes around the area," he said..

Within a short time the area was swarming with people, some arriving as spectators and some organized search parties that combed the dense bushes. Some even took risks of diving into the water after the hat of the granny was found floating on the water, suggesting that she might have fallen into the water. A shoe belonging to her was also found not far from the water.

The whole drama unfolded at around 14:00 and had a happy ending at around 18:00, when she was rescued from two unknown men who allegedly kept her captive under a big shrub, nearly a kilometre away from the spot where she had disappeared.

The two men are alleged to have fled the scene across the river when the search party came closer.

This averted what could have been an ugly scene as angry crowds of community members who believed she was abducted for ritual purposes, accused police of not helping them and threatened to cause havoc if she was not found. With several cases of alleged ritual murders reported in the Vhembe area during the past months, many community members concluded that she was taken for ritual purposes.

The arrival of Apostle Maxwell Masakona of the Calvary Christian Church at Lwamondo and Mr Pedron Nndwa, the community services manager at Musina Municipality, brought hope to the family whose members were weeping and the community members who were tired after combing the dense bushes with no positive results. As tension mounted, with the community getting impatient with the lack of assistance from the police, Masakona appealed for calm and asked the crowd to conduct one more search.

That was the search that brought happiness to the family and the community which had participated in the search. The gogo was found by an observant young cell phone repairer, who had traced the tracks to a big tree far from the spot where the granny went missing. There were shouts of happiness with family members hugging each other and others crying when she emerged from the dense bushes, carried on the back of the guy who found her.

The granny, who was in a state of shock with bruises all over her body, could not speak. She was taken to the hospital where she allegedly told people she was abducted by two unknown men.

Ms Azwinndini Maganu, a daughter of the granny, said the family is still in a state of shock and still need answers as to what the drama was all about. "We are just praying that God will help us to unravel this mystery, which was threatening to tear our family apart. We are just happy that she was found alive," she said.

Maganu said the conduct of the police left much to be desired after they failed to bring dogs and divers to help in the search. “My mother would have been killed for muti if it was not for these people who refused to leave the place and searched until they found her. The police did nothing to help us and we are very disappointed in them. We are indebted to the young man who found her."

Mr Elvis Tshilobekelo said he did not know that what he was doing would eventually lead to the discovery of the granny. “I arrived late at the scene and the people were already exhausted. I asked myself what if it was my own mother and sprang into action. I tried to search in the water, but nothing came out of our search. I then decided to go down along the river. The sound of people running away told me I have reached the right place, but at first I thought of running away as I was also afraid,” he said.

He said after a while he heard movement and on closer inspection he saw the gogo crawling.

Meanwhile, more than five incidents of alleged ritual murder have occurred in Vhembe since the beginning of last month. A 48-year-old mother of six was allegedly ritually murdered at Mavambe. Her body was found with some parts missing. Her murder sparked an outcry among community members who wanted police to arrest a well known traditional leader, whom they have identified as the prime suspect.

As if that was not enough, a granny from nearby Mahonisi village was murdered and her death also sparked riots. After the funeral of the granny, the body of a security guard was found in a ditch at Mavambe and the death sparked chaos in the area, with people burning tyres and barricading the streets.