Pretoria - The young girl's body was found in a bush, burnt and with a visibly swollen neck.
When Lindiwe Nkosi identified the body as that of her daughter, who hadn’t come home the previous day, she knew she would never have peace again for as long as she lived.
The body was burnt beyond recognition, she said on Thursday, so much so that even she could not recognise it.
But there was no doubt that the body was that of her 11-year-old daughter Noluthando who went missing on Monday when she walked the few streets from Soshanguve extension 13 to their home in extension 12.
“I could not recognise my baby girl. She was severely burnt.
“All I could see were the teeth and the shoes she wore because I knew all her clothes,” the mother said on Thursday.
The girl had been visiting her grandmother in extension 13. At about lunch-time she went out with her friends to buy fat cakes.
Her friends told her family she said she would then go home to extension 12 where she lived with her mother to see her older brother Nkosinathi.
It was on that fateful route that the unknown happened.
She would be found dead in Extension 14, her body burnt and her neck swollen, the very next day.
Devastated and heartbroken, Noluthando’s mother said her daughter was a respectful child who was normally back home from playing before 6pm.
But on Monday when Nkosi came back from work she was surprised to find her child was not home.
When Noluthando’s grandmother confirmed that the child was also not with her, Nkosi panicked.
Lindiwe Nkosi and her sister Sbongile Aphane. The body of Lindiwe’s 11-year-old daughter, Noluthando, has been found after she went missing on Monday. Picture: Jacques Naude/ANA Pictures
The mother rushed to extension 12, and then reported her daughter missing at the police station that very same night.
“My family and the community went out in their numbers in search of her, blowing whistles, calling out and making noises - but with no luck,” she said.
Later that night when the search teams realised there was nothing more they could do they went home, she said.
Nkosi described the night her daughter went missing as an emotional nightmare, daunting and the longest night of her life.
“On the night she went missing I could not sleep a wink.
“I did not lock the door, hoping and praying that my baby would run away from whatever was keeping her and just push the door open and come back to safety,” the heartbroken mother said.
The search for the child resumed on Tuesday morning with residents and relatives searching high and low and putting up posters of the missing child.
At around 4pm, Nkosi received the phone call that would break her.
“I got a call from people saying they had found the body of a child in the bush at extension 14. I ran there all the while praying that it would not be the daughter I gave birth to.”
Residents stopped her from getting close, saying the child was lying burnt on electricity cables.
There was evidence that her body had been set alight. “Maybe whoever burnt the bushes thought she would burn to ashes,” Nkosi said.
The heartbroken mother still had to identify the charred remains of her child, an extremely painful experience and something she wished no mother would ever face, Nkosi said. “I could not recognise my own baby girl that day. I told the forensic pathologists this was not my child but asked them to show me her clothes. To my horror I recognised her shoes and teeth and I knew it was my girl.”
The mother wants justice for her child, who had big dreams. Noluthando’s older brother was also severely traumatised.
“He does not want to go out into the streets. He is afraid that whoever killed his sister will also come for him,” Nkosi said.
Noluthando was a respectful, happy child, who played netball for the community team and attended church regularly, Nkosi said. She was doing brilliantly at school and wanted to be a paediatrician.
Police communication officer Constable Matsobane Mabusela said there were no suspects in the case yet, but investigations were ongoing.
Mabusela condemned what was done to the child. “If community members have any information they should contact the Akasia police station on 0125640700.”
The grisly find comes amid a string of women and children having gone missing. These include Soshanguve teacher Philile Gumede, who went missing in April and has yet to be found.