ZIMBABWE – HARARE – A prominent businessman and church elder in Harare’s high-density suburb of Old Tafara has been keeping his mentally ill son chained to a pole and under squalid conditions since 2007 reports Zimnet Radio.

Mr Chipo Chikonzo has been keeping his son Naison shackled in a cabin that resembles a tool shed at the back of the family house. While neighbours — as well as his sister — claimed the 26-year-old Naison had been chained for about three years, the father on Monday admitted to shackling him in 2009 because of his “violence”.

Mr Chikonzo operates a grocery and bottle store at Old Tafara Shopping Centre.

He is also an elder at the local Zaoga Church and on occasion, services are conducted at the home while Naison is chained at the back. Naison has become pale and unkempt; spending all his time in the cabin that has a makeshift toilet.

The strong stench of human waste pervaded the cabin when this reporter visited the home last Friday.Naison has been taking his meals in the squalid room, in which were piled two moth-eaten and filthy blankets.

The premises have a high security wall and people passing by cannot catch a glimpse of the conditions under which Naison is living. On Monday Mr Chikonzo said that Naison started experiencing mental problems in 2006.

However, a neighbour alleged that the problems started sometime in 2006 after he was “disciplined” for taking his father’s car for a joyride with friends without permission and crashing it.

Mr Chikonzo is alleged to have hired people to “discipline the young man”. But Mr Chikonzo dismissed the allegations insisting “it has nothing to do with what you have been told”.

“I am the father and I know what is affecting my son. I only confined him last year because of his violent nature,” Mr Chikonzo said.

He said he had consulted a “prophet” in Mt Darwin in the hope of curing his son’s ailment but to no avail.

“I used to take him to Annexe (mental health institution at Parirenyatwa Hospital) when the problem started. Now I am getting medicines from South Africa,” he added.

Mr Chikonzo said his son — who is the eldest in a family of five — had had numerous problems and would pick bar fights.

“We suspect he could have sustained head injuries because since then he started behaving strangely. After about a year or so we never saw him outside again,” said the neighbour.

This reporter  visited the Chikonzo home on Friday with officials from the Zimbabwe National Association of Mental Health who intended to help Naison but they could not take action because the father was said to have gone to Murehwa.

One of Naison’s sisters could not give a precise date as to when her brother fell ill but said he had been living in solitary confinement in the cabin since 2007 because “he used to destroy property and steal goods from the shop to resell”.

The mental health association’s national director, Mr Ignatius Murambidzi, deplored the conditions under which Naison has been living.

“We want to engage the father so that we can help his son. People should not be afraid or ashamed of having a mentally child to the extent of treating him like an animal,” said Mr Murambidzi.

He said his organisation would seek police assistance if the businessman refused to co-operate.

The director of Tariro Halfway Home in Glen View, Mr Lovemore Pasina, said: “People should seek help because there are a number of centres that offer help and treatment for free,” he said.

Some of the centres include Tirivanhu Centre in Ruwa, Beatrice Tariro and Tariro Halfway Home.

The Mental Health Act prohibits detention of any person as a patient in an institution, special institution or other place except under an order of a magistrate or the High Court or otherwise in accordance with provisions of the legislation.

Treatment for most mental conditions costs between about US$8 and US$15 per month.

By Zimnet Radio