num_pages: 250
description: In 1990, Dave Muller sails to Mozambique with his wife, Sandy, andtwo young children, to fulfil a boyhood dream of voyaging to thetropics on the yacht he’s spent ten years building. The fantasy holidaycomes to a shocking end when the yacht runs aground on a stretchof beach near the Bazaruto Islands. While waiting for high tide torefloat their vessel, a patrol of five child soldiers armed with AK47sarrive, along with their two adult captives. The young boys ransackthe yacht.Not Child’s Play brilliantly traverses the Mullers’ nightmare of sevenweeks as hostages of Renamo, a militant resistance organisation inMozambique. Dave and Sandy, desperate to protect their children,come close to collapse, plagued by intense mental and emotionalstrain. The fear of violence and death is a constant. Twice the campin which they are held is attacked by the warring government forces,Frelimo.Yet, after 49 days, the family becomes strangely comfortable in theircaptivity. The Mullers’ eventual rescue, which etched their names inhistory and is retold remarkably here, involved a covert operationby the SA Navy and Navy Seals – the kind of dramatic stuff thatHollywood action movies are made of!
title: Not Child’s Play, Kidnapped. Held Hostage. A True Story.
publisher: MFBooks Joburg