Several days have passed since the mutilated bodies of two young boys were discovered in Soweto, and the police, it seems, are nowhere close to announcing suspects in the child murders.
Soweto child murders: White City residents demand answers
On Sunday, the White City community held prayer vigils at the sites where the mutilated remains of Nqobile Zulu (5) and his cousin Tshiamo Ramanye (6) were found five days earlier.
Speaking to the media, residents voiced their concerns with the police’s silence on the child murders investigation.
“Nothing has been done yet to actually arrest the culprits but the investigation – it’s going to take a while before they are actually cocksure that the people that are suspected are the very perpetrators of this,” one resident told eNCA.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba also expressed worries about the slow pace of the investigation and offered an R50 000 reward for any information that could lead to the suspects’ arrest and subsequent prosecution.
“Let us actually put pressure on the police so that they don’t have any excuse whatsoever not to investigate this. What we are saying is we are offering you the R50 000 to someone who can give you the leads so that these criminals are arrested,” he said.
Police have yet to surface with updates on the Soweto child murders investigation.
On Wednesday, 19 April 2023, Zulu and Ramanye’s parents’ worst nightmares were realised when the two boys did not return home from playing outside.
The families reported the boys missing that evening, and a team of officers aided by community search teams, covered the White City area the entire night.
Unfortunately, Zulu’s mutilated body was discovered in the wee hours of Thursday, 20 April 2023. A short while later, Ramanye’s remains were discovered in a similar state a stone’s throw away.
Investigations into the Soweto child murders are still ongoing.