A desperate Mpumalanga family trekked more than 100km to a traditional healer searching for answers after their eight-year-old child’s disappearance. Little did they know their search would lead them to a gruesome discovery just 500m from their home.
On Saturday 53-year-old Zele Papo Machika, his girlfriend Pauline Maubane, 51, and her son Thabo Maubane, 32, were allegedly stoned to death in Senotlelo, Vaalbank, after Nomsa Sambo’s body was allegedly found inside a pit toilet at Machika’s home.
Sambo was reported missing on February 12 by her family at the Vaalbank police station.
She was allegedly last seen by her friend being carried by Machika to his home.
Her body was found inside a pit toilet in his yard in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Her heartbroken family has opened up on the events leading up to Sambo’s disappearance and death, allegedly at the hands of Machika.
Meisie Sambo, Nomsa’s great aunt, told TimesLIVE Premium the little girl was coming from a sleepover at her friend’s home when Machika called her over under the guise of giving her something to deliver to her mother.
“A child is a child, so she went to him. When she reached him he picked her up, and the friend who saw this came over to tell us Nomsa was picked up by this man.
“When we went to his house we found there was no-one there, so we asked the neighbours for his phone number. When we called the number, it didn’t go through.”
The desperate family took matters into their own hands, forcefully entering Machika’s house in a fruitless search for the girl.
According to Sambo, Machika returned home hours later, claiming he was coming from church.
When grilled on why he wasn’t wearing church attire, Machika insisted he took it off and left it at church.
“We continued looking for her but couldn’t find her. We then eventually went to a traditional healer who told us that we have left the child at home. He gave us the name and surname of the person who had our child.
“The community asked him where the child was. It was then that he said that ‘I threw the child inside the toilet’,” she said.
A heartbroken Sambo said that’s where they found Nomsa’s lifeless body.
The devastated aunt said the family had no idea what happened to Machika, his girlfriend and her son after the grim discovery, saying their family was in mourning over the tragic death of the grade 2 pupil.
Sambo said though the family agonised over the little girl’s final hours and the reasons for her brutal murder, they were relieved to have recovered her body.
She described Nomsa as a clever, bubbly girl who was very affectionate and loved hugs.
“She’d never greet you with a handshake. She would give you a hug,” Sambo affectionately recalled.
Acting Mpumalanga community safety, security and liaison MEC Speedy Mashilo visited the family on Monday with officials from the department and police.
The eight-year-old will be laid to rest on Saturday.
Brig Selvy Mohlala confirmed that an initial kidnapping charge had been changed to murder, and three counts of murder were being investigated in connection with the adults’ deaths.
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