PODCAST | Justice for Kopano — listen to the full series

Kopano Molelekedi was hit by a speeding car on the busy Albertina Sisulu Road in Florida, Roodepoort, on September 6 2018. She was crossing the road to her home in Jerusalema informal settlement.

The driver of the vehicle took her to Pennyville Park in Soweto, where she died at Noordgesig Clinic.

Despite witnesses who are able to describe the man and his car and despite people taking photos of the event, the police said they have no suspects in Kopano’s death. Sunday Times journalist Alex Patrick and podcast producer Paige Muller investigate the case.

For five days, 10-year-old Kopano lay in a morgue in Soweto as a girl with no name.

Just 15km away, a family was frantically searching for their child, who never made it to her mother’s home in Jerusalema.

Finally, a family member working at Noordgesig Clinic made the connection when she saw a description of the missing girl. Kopano was found in the mortuary at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.

But it was just the start of a nightmare for her family. 

Of all the injustices in the case of a 10-year-old girl struck by a motorist, abducted and dumped in a field far from home, perhaps the biggest is the lacklustre investigation into her death by the police.

From claims her mother Orapaleng was not allowed to open a missing person’s case to not following up with witnesses who saw the incident, law enforcement plays an important role in the lives of those who lost their little girl.

It was only when the Sunday Times began asking questions that the family received its first visit from the police. That was on March 26 2020, the day before the start of the national Covid-19 lockdown.

Kopano died on September 2 2018. It’s safe to say they have heard nothing since.

LISTEN | All five episodes are listed below:

Follow the movements on that fateful morning on the map below to understand better why this case doesn’t add up and how a crime with so many witnesses has gone unpunished.

This five-part investigative series is a collaboration between the Sunday Times and TimesLIVE Podcasts after a two-year investigation that remains unresolved.