A waste picker stumbled upon the mutilated body of a five-year-old boy on Thursday morning as two Soweto families were plunged into mourning after the alleged kidnapping and gruesome murder of two “cousins” just 1.4km apart.
The mutilated bodies of Nqobizitha Zulu, 5, and Tshiamo Rabanye, 6, were found in Rockville and White City respectively by stunned residents after a nearly 24-hour search for the duo.
Police said the two boys were reported missing at Moroka police station on Wednesday evening. A third child was apparently found unharmed.
“A search team involving all relevant stakeholders, including search and rescue, was activated. This morning the lifeless bodies of the kids were found mutilated. One was discovered in White City, while the other was discovered later in Rockville,” police spokesperson Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said.
According to Rockville residents, a waste picker stumbled upon Zulu’s body, at the edge of Thokoza Park, as he collected rubbish.
He then alerted sceptical neighbours, who rushed to the crime scene only to come across the five-year-old’s mutilated body. Zulu was apparently found with his nose and mouth cut off and his private parts removed.
Horrified residents alerted Moroka police, not knowing that just five minutes away, the body of another boy had been discovered by the Mofolo South and White City community policing forum (CPF) as well as patrollers near two local schools. He too was found without his private parts and with his throat slit.
Zulu and Rabanye were cousins, according to both families. Brig Brenda Muridili denied this, saying they just lived near close to each other.
When TimesLIVE Premium arrived at the scene, Rockville residents and Zulu’s devastated family had already gathered at the park’s edge, waiting for forensics to collect the little boy’s body, which had been covered with a plastic.
His mother, wrapped in a blanket and sitting on another brought to cover the little boy’s body before he was taken away, sat on the grass and stared ahead while devastated family members comforted her.
Among those were her brother and Zulu’s uncle, Bonginkosi Mdingi.
Mdingi described the family’s search for the grade R boy, which started on Wednesday night and went well into the early hours of Thursday.
“What happened on Wednesday is that they were searching, searching until the early hours. Then they found them I think this morning.
“I last saw him at around 2pm as I was coming back from work. He came to me wanting chocolate and then I spoke to him and gave him a book. He then went off to play,” a devastated Mdingi said.
Mdingi said his nephew and Rabanye, 6, were playing at Thokoza Park when they were apparently snatched.
Over in White City, angry residents gathered a few metres from where Rabanye's body was discovered, wedged between IH Bonner chapel and Isiseko Primary School.
Family members sat just beyond the police tape as forensics members worked at the scene. Distressing wails broke out when it was time to take the little boy’s body away.
Rabanye’s shattered grandmother, Nqobile Ndlovu, was among those at the scene. She told TimesLIVE Premium she left Rabanye playing with his cousin and friend at home.
“When I returned, the family asked why I was returning alone and where was the child? I explained that I left him at home. He apparently told them he left with me.
“We then rushed to Moroka police station and the police were quick to assist us. We then went to search for them at the local clinics and veld. We parted at about 3am and resumed the search this morning.
“A friend of theirs said that they were all playing at Thokoza Park, but he left them there, so we went there and searched everywhere. While we were there, I got a call to return to White City with the police because the patrollers found a child. When we got here, I didn’t get too close to the scene, I just recognised his clothes. My sister saw him and later told me that they slit his throat and cut his private parts.”
Ndlovu, who was Rabanye’s father’s mother, shared the double pain of first losing her son and now her grandchild. Her eldest child died in 2020 and was followed shortly by the grade 1 boy’s mother in 2021. Rabanye was being raised by his grandmother at the time of his death.
“I’m so shattered, I don’t understand. It’s like I’m dreaming and I’ll wake up from this nightmare,” the shaken grandmother said.
“And just yesterday [Wednesday], when he returned from school, he said to me, ‘gogo, when I grow up I’ll buy you a house and your wine’,” Ndlovu fondly recalled.
Both families described the boys as close-knit and playful.
“He was just a quiet child, always playing with other children. He was just like any other naughty child but not too naughty,” Zulu’s family said.
White City residents shared their anger and frustration at the unsafe conditions children were subjected to, especially when the lights went out.
“We’re very angry ... because these things happen when the load-shedding hits. These people [allegedly] target young boys, from six years and lower,” Pinkie Motsoane told the publication.
“And they are so disrespectful because they dump the children right where we can see them. We now have to keep a close eye on our children, but my question is, until when will we guard them?” she asked.
Gauteng MEC for education Matome Chiloane visited the families of the two boys on Thursday afternoon.
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