It was a tale that grabbed headlines and shocked the community of Rosettenville: a 13-year-old who was abducted on her way home from school‚ raped‚ beaten and left for dead in the trunk of her attacker’s vehicle and found barely alive days later.
However‚ on Wednesday TimesLIVE learnt it was all just a hoax.
The office of Gauteng Social Development MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza said she had wanted to personally attend to the matter by visiting the child and her grief-stricken family. They‚ however‚ had struggled to locate the family of the girl‚ or find the child in hospital or even find any trace of the incident at the police station.
“It appears there is someone who is sick who has been making these hoax messages. While the nation is gripped with cases of femicide and the rise of violence against children and women‚ someone finds it funny to make such false claims‚” said Mayathula-Khoza’s spokesperson‚ Mbangwa Xaba.
On Saturday at the launch of the Child Protection Week‚ Mayathula-Khoza had expressed her concern over the case. One newspaper reported that she had read out a WhatsApp message she had received about a 13-year-old girl who was in need of prayers.
The message read: “It is with a painfully heavy heart that I write this. I’m appealing to all to pray for [the] 13-year-old‚ who is lying in a hospital bed in Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital on life support and fighting for her life. She is displaying no brain activity and isn’t responding to medication. She needs everyone’s prayers.”
Mayathula-Khoza was quoted as saying that a suspect had reportedly been arrested in the case. Xaba said the MEC was pleased that the case was found to be untrue‚ but was still upset by the matter.
“Everybody is weak at the knees because of this hoax. Everyone is just saddened‚” he said.
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