A mother whose four-year-old daughter is missing is having sleepless nights as she waits for DNA results of the mutilated body of a child found in Tamboville, near Benoni on the East Rand.
The tests were run on Wednesday, a day after a 63-year-old woman who was sweeping her yard in Tamboville found toes and later discovered there was a leg buried in a shallow grave.
Spokesperson Lt-Col Mavela Masondo said: “As the police were processing the scene, they were informed about the body of a child in an open veld, about 800 metres away from the house where the leg was found. Upon arrival at the second scene, police found a mutilated body of a child.”
Now 30-year-old Tsholofelo Poo of Wattville is fearful and worried about the whereabouts of little Bokgabo Poo who was last seen playing with her friend at a park near her home early on Monday afternoon.
“I have been searching everywhere for her, hoping that I would find a shoe she was wearing. On Tuesday, a police officer came to the house to tell us that there was a video footage, showing where Bokgabo was last seen.
“I was not able to identify the man seen talking to her... Later on while searching at the park, I got a call about a body being found in Tamboville and rushed to the scene.
“I believed for a second that it [body] was my daughter. The digging was fresh and the toes were that of a child. I was so numb and was ready to carry my daughter's lifeless body. But I looked closer and could see that they were not my child's. The thigh was just too big.
“The father of the child, my partner and my mother went to the veld where the mutilated body was found. They found that the body was badly mutilated and could not make out the face and even though the hair could have been my daughter's, the clothes did not match the last items she wore on Monday,” Poo said.
In the footage, which Sowetan has seen, Bokgabo is walking from a shop on Mdaka Street and is talking to an unidentified man.
They then disappear.
Poo said Bokgabo's friend, six, told them that while they were playing, a man approached them, gave him R2 and sent him to go buy two lollipops.
He took the money and went, leaving Bokgabo with the unknown man.
When he returned, they were both gone.
Poo said Bokgabo was wearing a purple vest, orange shorts and red and white flip flops.
“Can I please get my Bokgabo back? That's all I ask from whoever took her.”
Poo said her daughter was very talkative and loud.
“I know wherever she is she is confused and scared. She is a screamer. So, wherever she is, how loud is she and why can't anyone hear her? My biggest fear is that they have harmed or gagged her,” said the distraught mother.
Masondo said a case of kidnapping was being investigated and no arrests have been made.
Asked if there was a possibility that the body parts found could be from different children, Masondo said, “That will form part of the police investigation. Police have taken DNA from both the leg and body to determine whether they belong to one child or not.”
sibiyan@sowetan.co.za
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