'Five minutes and she was gone': Soweto mother of six-year-old girl who was raped and killed

Amantle Samane's mother spent almost two hours looking for her daughter until a teenage boy arrived at her door to inform her that she had been found in a backroom shack a few houses from her home.

The mother of a six-year-old who was raped and murdered on Monday in Orlando, Soweto, last saw her little girl playing with other children across the street from her home.

Ntombizodwa Samane had decided to rush to the shops while her daughter was playing with her friends.

On her return, her daughter was still playing. She went inside the house and began to prepare clothes Amantle was due to wear for her graduation on Tuesday.

She was due to graduate Grade R next month. After finishing her chores, Ntombizodwa went looking for her child.

“I found that Amantle was not there. I went next door to where other children were playing.”   

The children said they didn’t know where she had gone, so she went to her father's house and she wasn't there either, she said.

She proceeded to her sister thinking maybe her daughter had gone there. 

When she returned home, two boys who stay in the same yard told her they had seen her daughter alone at the street corner.

“They asked her why she didn't go home because it was cold, but she just laughed and they left. 

“Before I got inside the house, a teenage boy came to me and said, 'mama, I found the child.' I started crying, asking where did you find the child, how is she? He said your daughter is fine, so please don’t cry,” she said. 

The teenage boy took them a few houses away from her home. She found her daughter lying inside a shack, partially undressed and covered in a blanket. 

Ntombizodwa broke down in tears when she described the state in which she found her daughter. She uncovered the blanket, dressed her properly, lifted her and checked if she was still alive.

“She wasn’t responding. I looked at her neck and I saw she had been strangled. It was then that they called the police and ambulance,” she said. 

She said she didn't know anything about the suspect, but had heard he was a welder. She said her daughter was full of life, enjoyed dancing and loved singing.

“It is painful and I don't think it will ever be better,” she said.

“Five minutes, just that five minutes, and she was gone,” she said.

“Amantle is not a child who often played in the street, but I also don't like keeping them in the house all the time. I also want to see them play with other children.”

Thabo Kekana, the suspect's landlord, said he was shocked when three teenage boys arrived at his home. 

Kekana said the suspect, a Mozambican national, moved into his yard four months ago. He said his wife and child had moved in, but they left about two weeks ago. 

“Three boys came and said that they saw him, it appears that one of them was at the salon cutting hair and they asked him where was he taking the child.

“One of the boys looked through the window and saw the child lying down,” he said. 

They forced the locked door open and found the child inside.

He added the suspect ran away and residents from the community burnt his belongings. He said they looked for him everywhere and even went to his boss, but they never found him.

“This guy [suspect] goes to work every day. He is a welder, he was a good tenant and he paid the rent on time, but he never had visitors. He would come home, close himself inside his shack and the following day he would go to work and even worked on weekends,” he said.

Gauteng police spokesperson Lt-Col Mavela Masondo said they engaged with Interpol and border management to assist if the suspect tries to leave the country.

He said investigations revealed that the suspect is not a South African citizen. “ We received information that this was the last person to be seen with the child,” he said. 

He added that police had obtained a warrant of arrest. He appealed to residents to give the police space to investigate and to refrain from activities that could compromise the case.

He said if community members apprehended a suspect, they should take him to the police.