Cape Town - A nine-year-old boy is in hiding after he allegedly killed his little three-year-old playmate.
The little boy has no birth certificate, has never been to school and claims his friend’s death was a freak accident.
The child vanished a day after the death of toddler Liyabona Mgxebe in Wesbank in November last year.
It is believed relatives have taken him from his mother’s home and are keeping him at another location.
Meanwhile, the slain toddler’s mother Leticia Mgxebe, 40, is demanding the boy’s mother cough up R20 000 for funeral costs.
Liyabona died at Red Cross Children’s Hospital after being declared brain dead – after a steel wire pierced his brain.
When the Daily Voice team approached the nine-year-old boy’s family in Wesbank, they refused to speak.
But last week the Daily Voice managed to track down the nine-year-old staying with relatives.
The boy spoke briefly about the attack before the family decided to clam up.
The little boy claimed it was an accident after the toddler ran in front of him as he tossed a sharp piece of wire.
“I wanted to throw the draad (wire) to someone and then the boy ran in front of me, it hit him in the head on the side and came out on the other side,” the little boy said.
When the Daily Voice tried speaking to the boy’s mother, she refused to comment.
“Druk, ons soek nie julle hier nie (Leave, we don’t want you here),” was all she would say.
Meanwhile, police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said that cops have made no arrests in Liyabona’s death and the case is still under investigation.
But Liyabona’s mother and brother Ronnie Mgxebe, 17, tell a different story and believe it was intentional, and not an accident as the nine-year-old claims.
“When I arrived at the scene, my child was lame and his eyes rolled to the back of his head,” she said.
“They told me the nine-year-old hit by my child with a stone against the head.
“But inside Red Cross Hospital, the doctors showed me the damage on the brain.
“They said there is blood on the brain and that it was caused by a sharp object.”
It was then that Leticia said she discovered it was a steel wire that caused damage to her son’s brain.
“The doctor said it wasn’t a stone,” she said.
She said neighbours later brought her the wire which pierced her child’s head.
She now suspects Liyabona was deliberately stabbed.
After little Liyabona’s life support was turned off late last year, Leticia confronted the mother of the nine-year-old.
“When they put the oxygen off, I kissed my child and told him I love him,” she said.
“I called the mother of the boy and told her, ‘your child killed my child’ and I said you are going to help me bury my child.
“She said she didn’t have the money because she doesn’t have a job.”
Leticia says she then opened a case with police and handed them the wire as evidence.
She said a day after her son passed away, the nine-year-old was taken away by his relatives.
“That day when the incident happened, when the child cried here, he said to me the wire came out of my child,” she said.
“That was the last time I saw him.
“The family and a sister (a person from the community) took him away.”
Street Committee member Patrick Madafi said there are still too many unanswered questions and that people who know the facts should come forward with the information.
Daily Voice