Online Reporter
Michelle Musandinyoze
THE nightmare refuses to end for eight of 31 victims rescued from the now infamous Habits Complex Rehabilitation Centre in Bulawayo.
Weeks after shocking allegations of rape, torture, beatings and bizarre midnight rituals exploded into the public eye, the traumatised survivors are now facing another painful rejection. Their own families do not want them back home.
The right are now being housed at a property in Cowdray Park after allegedly being dumped there by runaway rehab boss Noris Pikanegore.
Reports last night claimed Pikanegore had been arrested.
Instead of reuniting with loved ones after their ordeal, some parents are refusing to collect them, describing them as “too wild”, mentally unstable and impossible to live with.
“It is heartbreaking,” said a woman who identified herself as Mrs Sibanda, one of the people currently helping care for the victims.“These children need counselling, love and proper care. They are human beings who went through terrible abuse. “However, some parents are saying they cannot manage them anymore.”The emotional scars appear deep.
Some of the survivors allegedly suffer from severe psychological trauma after enduring months of abuse at the Emganwini-based rehabilitation centre which police say was operating illegally.B-Metro previously exposed chilling allegations from former inmates.
They claimed Pikanegore turned the centre into a house of horror where girls were allegedly raped and pimped out to businessmen while both male and female patients were assaulted and forced into disturbing “ritual therapy” sessions.Victims claimed they were beaten with batons, forced to walk naked during bizarre midnight ceremonies called “Spoko Night” and made to bath with herbs supplied by traditional healers.
One teenager, who escaped, claimed she was raped repeatedly before being driven to Pelandaba where she believed she was being delivered to a businessman for sex.Her daring escape exposed the entire operation and triggered police investigations.Sadly, the fallout is leaving survivors stranded and unwanted.
When B-Metro visited the former rehabilitation premises in Emganwini, the once heavily-guarded house had completely changed.
The rehab centre was gone.
A new family now occupies the property and claims they have no idea of the horrors allegedly committed there.“An agent connected me here. I did not even know this place used to house children,” said a woman renting the property.She said several people have been arriving at the house looking for clothes and belongings left behind by former inmates.“I found nothing when I moved in,” she said.Residents in the area also revealed how mysterious the place had always been.“The children were never allowed outside,” said a man who lives nearby.
“We only saw them going to school in uniforms and quickly coming back. They hardly spoke to anyone.”
Another resident said Pikanegore drove an expensive vehicle and kept to himself.“He only responded to greetings when waiting for the gate to open,” he said.
Meanwhile, the eight abandoned victims remain trapped in limbo as authorities and caregivers try to figure out what happens next.
