Johannesburg - Muti killings are suspected to be behind the murder and mutilation of the bodies of two young boys, aged five and six, who were discovered yesterday morning in two separate places in Soweto after they went missing on Wednesday night.
This has led the community of White City in Soweto to live in fear as they do not know who is behind the killings that have sparked outrage across the Rockville, White City, and Mofolo South communities.
It is reported that the two toddlers, identified as Nqobile Zulu, aged five, and Tshiamo Rabanye, aged six, were playing with one of their friends when they were allegedly approached by unknown men travelling in an unidentified car just after 8pm on Wednesday.
Nqobile’s body was found in White City, while the second body, belonging to Tshiamo was found a few kilometres away in Rockville at Thokoza Park. Both bodies were missing their private parts, noses and lips — resulting in suspected muti or ritual killings.
Speaking to the media, the chairperson of the CPF, Melusi Hlatshwayo, and leader of community patrollers in Mofolo South and White City, said the search party conducted a widespread search across the two townships, including Mofolo South and White City.
“The two kids who were discovered this morning were reported missing from last night just after 8pm. We went on a search for the two kids just after load shedding happened, but we could not find them. This morning, we continued with our search and went to all the hotspots that we knew.
“Fortunately enough, one of our patrollers alerted us to the body of one of the boys. We went there to discover the body and asked ourselves about the second body, as we were told that there were three. We looked for the second one and quickly came together as patrollers from all the neighbouring areas. We then came to check Thokoza Park as we knew this was one of the hotspots,” Hlatshwayo said.
“Even though we do not want to speculate, we do suspect that whoever did this is involved in traditional killings because of what we found there, which suggests that this could be muti or ritual-related killings,” Hlatshwayo added.
Nqobile Ndlovu, Tshiamo’s grandmother, could not hold back her tears when talking about her loss.
She said her son recently passed on and left her grandson in her care.
‘’What a tragic loss! I am angry, I have lost my grandson. He is the son of my first-born, who died in 2020. I was consoling myself with this one. I identified him by his clothes. I could not look at him. My sister opened the cover and told me that his throat was slit and his penis is missing,’’ said Ndlovu.
She said they don't know who is behind the killing, but believed the perpetrator/s targeted minors because, of late, children go missing, and it is rare to find them alive.
Ndlovu said Tshiamo and his 5-year-old friend went missing on Wednesday, and they were playing together.
She said she left her grandson playing, and later when she returned home, they thought she had left with him.
‘’We went to the home of his friend, who also went missing. They, too, thought the children were with me. That is when we went to the Moroka police station to open a missing person case. We went searching together with the police until 3am.
“Again yesterday morning, we went to search, and while we were at Thokoza Park, I received a call to come to this passage, and indeed, it was him. The body of his friend was discovered in Moroka Dam. He was also killed in a similar way,’’ she said.
One of the toddlers was lucky to have escaped with his life after his friends’ bodies were found with missing body parts.
The boy’s aunt, who spoke to The Star on condition of anonymity, said the boy returned home screaming after going missing with two of his friends.
“He came home screaming and shaking, calling the names of his friends out. We did not give him attention and proceeded to beat him as he had gone out playing at night, not realising that he was actually telling us about what happened to him and his friends. I believe if we had listened to him, we could have been able to find out what happened, but now it’s too late,“ the aunt said.
The aunt said the family is now living in fear as they do not know who is behind the two murders.
“As the family, we are now living in fear as we do not know who is behind this. Our child went to school, but I doubt if he will ever recover from this ordeal. He still speaks as if his friends are still around,” the aunt added.
The Provincial Commissioner of Police in Gauteng, Lieutenant General Elias Mawela, has mobilised resources following the gruesome murder of two children.
Police confirmed that yesterday morning the lifeless bodies of the minors were found mutilated.
Mawela has condemned these gruesome murders in the strongest possible terms.
‘’It is so disheartening and disgraceful to see such little innocent lives being lost in this hideous manner. It cannot be that no one saw or heard nothing. We are appealing to anyone who may have information about this incident to please report to the police,’’ Mawela said.
The Star