Johannesburg -
Women, Children, and People with Disabilities Minister Lulu Xingwana and City of Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau led a prayer march in Diepsloot on Monday.
They were accompanied by religious leaders, the Johannesburg metro police, the city's drill squad, and community members.
Xingwana, Tau, and the religious leaders visited the Methodist Church in the informal settlement for a prayer day.
The group sang a Setswana hymn “Modimo rea ho boka (Lord, we praise)” while walking to the church.
Members of the ANC also arrived. The metro police choir welcomed the public into the church.
Residents found a seven-month-old baby was found dead and mutilated in a shack in the area on Sunday. The baby's mother went to the police claiming the infant had been eaten by rats, The Star reported. When the police arrived the woman had disappeared.
However, subsequently, Captain Tsekiso Mofokeng said a case of murder was being investigated.
“We have registered a case of murder, but initially it was an inquest,” Mofokeng said.
Police arrived to find the baby's body with a foot missing from the body.
“Further investigations informed police that (the foot) was bitten off by rats,” he said.
Police were still awaiting the results of the post mortem to definitively determine the cause of death. Mofokeng said the baby's mother was missing and had still not been located by Monday morning, contrary to media reports that she had reported the matter to police.
In October, Yonelisa Mali, two, and her cousin Zandile Mali, three, were found dead in a toilet cubicle by a resident. In September, five-year-old Anelisa Mkondo was found dead in the same area.
A 29-year-old man faces charges of murder, rape, and kidnapping in connection with the deaths of the Mali cousins.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesman Medupi Simasiku said the police were still investigating the Mkondo case.
After the murders were discovered, Diepsloot residents stoned cars and burnt tyres in the street outside the local police station in protest. - Sapa