Cape Town - The uncle of a Khayelitsha child found decapitated on Tuesday will face a charge of murder when he appears in court on Wednesday.
The 21-year-old was arrested after his four-year-old nephew Khwezi Mkhwambi’s decapitated body was found in a shallow grave near Enkanini in Khayelitsha.
He would appear in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, police spokesman FC Van Wyk said.
Khwezi was last seen when he went with his uncle to buy crisps at a spaza shop, said Mzuvukile Ntlonze, the family’s spokesman.
The uncle later claimed Mkhwambi was abducted by a group of men who threatened to shoot him if he followed them, Ntlonze said.
“He came back screaming, ‘help me, help me, Khwezi has been kidnapped by three men’. He told me he tried to fight back, but the men stabbed Khwezi. We took my car and went after them,” Ntlonze said on Wednesday. He said they later decided to search on foot.
“When we were about to give up the search, he (uncle) said, ‘I did not do anything. It wasn’t me’. I asked him what he was talking about. He just cried. He then ran away. I called the police,” he said.
Ntlonze and the police drove towards where the uncle had gone. “We spotted him not far off. I took a shortcut... I started beating him up, asking him what had happened. He told me he had cut off Khwezi’s head,” said Ntlonze.
“I asked where Khwezi was. He took us to the spot where he had buried him,” Ntlonze said.
“He refused to tell us where the head was, but after sometime he showed us where the head was. It was wrapped in a brown paper bag,” he said.
Van Wyk said: “It is alleged the uncle went with his nephew in the nearby bushes. After a while he came out alone saying that the child was kidnapped by unknown suspects.”