Butchered boy's father, mother tell of their grief

Caroline Nkone, the mother of the Cape Town toddler who was butchered and stuffed into a suitcase, is still battling to come to terms with her loss.

Athenkosi Nkone, 3, had been playing with friends on the street near his home in Guguletu over a week ago when he disappeared. His mutilated body was later found in a suitcase in a nearby shack.

He was buried on Friday.

"I've not been able to do anything. I'm shaking as it is. The only thing I want now is for the killer to tell me why he killed my child," Nkone said yesterday.

Outraged residents hounded Nkone's neighbour, only known as MaDlamini Bhashe, out of her home last week after Athenkosi's body was found in her tenant's shack in her yard. They accused her of being an accomplice and only left amid a heavy police presence.

Yesterday, furious residents sang in the streets and taunted police who had been patrolling the road since last week.

Athenkosi's father, Sidney Mavata, also battled to control the residents. "The way my child died traumatises me, he didn't die from an illness, he wasn't poisoned. He was brutally killed."

Akhona Mgijima, 20, was arrested and charged with the murder.

He appeared in the Athlone Magistrate's Court yesterday.

Residents burnt the shack Mgijima shared with his father on Sunday morning.

Mgijima will appear in court again on October 26.