“We are finished with your dog [Thandolwethu], but we want our R30,000. We would have dropped it off at your doorstep. The other one [her younger brother] is next.”
This is the chilling SMS sent to Thandolwethu Mahlangu’s mother Ayanda Ngwenyama the day before her daughter’s body was found outside a shack just five houses from her home in Delmas, Mpumalanga.
Thandolwethu, 7, went missing on Monday last week an hour after her security guard father Jabu had left home with her mother.
Her mother received two messages from the kidnappers at 7am on Tuesday after an overnight search for the girl by police and community members.
“We are watching you, and now you are in town. You can go and fetch your dog. We threw it nearby. We want our money. Tell Jabu to send the money to this number via CashSend. If he doesn’t send the money, we are going to burn the house where we found that dog,” read the second message, causing Ngwenyama to panic.
She kept calling the number, but it went straight to voicemail. She then informed the police, and her daughter’s body was found lying behind a neighbour’s shack on Wednesday, two days after a frantic community search.
Diikgetse Sepenyane, a family representative, said the police tried to track the cellphone number’s location but could only triangulate it to a place just outside Delpark in Delmas.
“The police then asked Jabu about owing money to people, and he gave them three names on a list of people he used to borrow money from. They called these people in and interrogated them, but they ruled them out, as Jabu had long settled his debt,” Sepenyane said.
The police then asked Jabu about owing money to people, and he gave them three names on a list of people he used to borrow money from.
— Diikgetse Sepenyane
Jabu’s father Bafana Mahlangu said he believed his son didn’t owe any money to anyone and also questioned the R30,000 CashSend ransom.
“We don’t have that sort of money lying around here. We would need to go to the bank and ask for a loan because we are poor,” he said.
Mahlangu said the family were in shock.
“I don’t even know where to start explaining how we are feeling. We still don’t understand how this happened. The children she was playing with said they didn’t see anyone, and it’s such a shock to us because we don’t understand. Everyone was looking for Thandolwethu, but we couldn’t find her,” he said.
Jacob Skhosana found Thandolwethu’s body when he was collecting trash to be picked up on Wednesday morning.
“I was reaching down for a paper stuck between the shack and the fence when I looked up; I saw her legs and half her body. I immediately went around the shack and saw her lying there between the brick wall and the other shack of my neighbour’s house. I was shocked and frightened. It scares me even now to think about it because we all helped look for her,” Skhosana said.
He said Thandolwethu had a bruised eye and small needle marks around her hand and back.
Mahlangu said his granddaughter’s death has left a gap in the family. They had prayed for a long time for her safe return. The family is looking to take her young brother to live with relatives.
Mpumalanga police have opened a case of murder, with acting provincial commissioner Maj-Gen Zeph Mkhwanazi condemning the brutal killing.
“People have lost their sense of humanity. How can anyone kill an innocent young girl who had her whole future ahead of her? We will not rest until the suspects are behind bars,” Mkhwanazi said.
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