Cow moos in cattle rustler stomach

bull

A 41-year-old man suspected of stealing 11 head of cattle has been admitted to Gwanda Provincial Hospital, suffering from a mysterious disease.

Chronicle yesterday visited the suspect, Mlaki Ncube of Ngoma Village under Chief Marupi area, at the hospital where he is admitted and found him writhing in pain.His stomach has swelled.

According to police and members of the public, a bellowing sound was heard coming from the man’s stomach.

“We actually heard a bellowing sound like that of a cow mooing while he was admitted to Manama Hospital, which is why hospital authorities decided to transfer him to Gwanda,” said a witness.

Villagers tipped off the police that Ncube, whom they suspected to be a cattle rustler, was admitted to Manama Hospital, resulting in his arrest on Saturday.

All along he had been feeling the pain.Narrating his ordeal from his hospital bed, Ncube admitted that he stole the cattle and he believes the owners bewitched him.He said he is also suffering from abdominal pains, adding that for the past four days he has been failing to relieve himself.

“I can’t go to the toilet to relieve myself and my stomach is continuously rumbling. I am in terrible pain and I believe these are acts of witchcraft for the offences that I committed,” said Ncube.

He said he has been pleading with the police so that they could release him from hospital to “seek herbal treatment” at his rural home.

“The police should at least give me five days so that I can go to my home and get an inyanga because doctors have failed to detect anything yet I am in continuous pain,” said Ncube. “This is getting worse and I am really in terrible pain.”

However, efforts to contact the doctors were fruitless as they were reportedly out on official business.A nurse who spoke to Chronicle equally expressed shock, saying she was witnessing such an incident for the first time.The suspect was arrested together with a local senior village head, Madubeko Dube (63) and his son Tsokolo Dube (43) during an anti-stocktheft operation code-named Operation Inkomo Wazithathangaphi.

Matabeleland South provincial police spokesperson Inspector Tafanana Dzirutwe said they managed to recover 29 head of cattle worth US$6 000 during the exercise, which was launched on Wednesday last week.He said the policemen who arrested Ncube said they heard a beast bellowing in his stomach.

“We recovered 29 cattle during the operation, which we launched last week after having realised that villagers in Shangaugwe, Ngoma, Selonga, John Dip and Guyu had expressed an outcry over rampant cattle rustling activities in their areas,” said Insp Dzirutwe.

“As police we continue to urge villagers to report stocktheft cases as soon as possible and we will continue to conduct such operations until sanity prevails.”