Imizamo Yethu residents line the hillside near Zeelandile Ndohlos home as a police officer and a sniffer dog search for the missing four-year-old.

NEO MADITLA and NATASHA BEZUIDENHOUT

Staff Reporters

THREE days ago, Zeelandile Ndohlo walked out of his family’s Imizamo Yethu home to relieve himself.

When his father went outside a few minutes later to check on him, the four-year-old was nowhere to be found.

Two hours later, Zeelandile – unharmed and in good spirits – walked into another home in the Hout Bay informal settlement, opened some cupboards, smiled at the owner, then walked out and disappeared.

Police were continuing to scour the mountainside next to Imizamo Yethu today and community leaders were encouraging residents not to give up the search for the little boy, who is unable to speak.

Zeelandile Ndohlo, 4, is missing

Until yesterday, it was not clear what had happened to Zeelandile after he left his parents’ home, but a woman has come forward to describe an encounter she had with the friendly boy on Sunday afternoon.

Zoliswa Maqhubela, 22, told the Cape Argus she was braiding a friend’s hair when a little boy walked into her home.

“While I was doing my friend’s hair the boy walked through the door and then started opening a cupboard. I asked him where his mother was but he didn’t respond.

“I kissed him on the cheek and lips and he smiled at me. I noticed that he couldn’t talk and that he seemed disabled.”

Maqhubela said the incident happened just before 2pm on Sunday.

“It was the first time that I had seen him. He just smiled and left without answering my questions.

“When I asked neighbours where he had gone or who his mother was, they didn’t know.

“I didn’t know that he was a missing child at the time,” she added.

Zeelandile was reported missing on Sunday.

Since then, police officers, sniffer dogs and police helicopters have been searching Imizamo Yethu and surrounds. On Monday, residents went door-to-door, checking houses, while a community leader used a loudhailer to urge them to check people’s fridges, referring to rumours about witch doctors in the area.

Police handed out flyers with a photograph of Zeelandile, asking residents to spread the word and be on the lookout.

Yesterday, another community leader, Vincent Sodladla, said it was important for residents and the boy’s family not to lose hope.

“We are spreading the areas where we are searching,” he said.

“It’s very funny what has happened (a missing child), because it never happened here before. We have searched homes as well as the forest.”

As dusk settled over Imizamo Yethu yesterday evening, children kicked soccer balls back and forth and women walked past Zeelandile’s family home carrying full water buckets on their heads.

Inside the house the mood was solemn. A local pastor led a prayer meeting with Zeelandile’s parents and neighbours.

“We have to believe (in) God for a miracle,” the pastor told the residents.

Likhona Kumkani, the child’s mother, said her son did not talk at all although he was a friendly child.

“It’s been three days. I’m so worried.

“He doesn’t talk but he likes smiling and understands when you speak to him,” she said.

She added that he was wearing brown tracksuit pants and a striped long-sleeved top at the time of his disappearance. He was barefoot.

According to Missing Children South Africa, about 1 200 children are reported missing each year in the country and more than 90 percent of them are found within a week of disappearing.

Zeelandile’s picture and details of his disappearance and what he was wearing have been posted on Missing Children SA’s Facebook page, attracting supportive and worried comments from people across the country.

In a bid to address child abductions and other crimes against children, Social Development MEC Albert Fritz and Community Safety MEC Dan Plato will be part of a crime summit in Khayelitsha on Friday.

Topping the agenda will be the spate of child abductions, murders and rapes, said Plato earlier this week.