Pietermaritzburg - Pietermaritzburg police are working around the clock to find the person who stabbed to death – and possibly raped – a 5-year-old girl on Monday afternoon.
Thandiwe Mlaba’s body was found in bush in the Woodlands area.
The Grade R pupil from Sweetwaters, who attended the Berg Street Primary School in the city centre, was dropped off in the morning by a person who transported children from the area to schools.
Her grandfather, Sibusiso Mlaba, said the driver contacted her mother, Nqobile, in the afternoon, saying Thandiwe had not waited for him after school as she usually did. He had gone to the school twice to look for her.
Later that afternoon, Nqobile received a call from a woman saying her daughter was in Woodlands. She had opened the girl’s school bag and found a book with her mother’s contact details.
“Nqobile phoned me to go to Woodlands. She did not know that her child was dead.”
Mlaba went there and found Thandiwe’s body.
“She had been stabbed about seven times around her neck area.”
He said the family were shocked by the killing, but “there was nothing they could do and they had to accept it”.
Describing the child, he said: “She was a different kind of child. We used to think she had a good future. She was very clever and used to ask lots of questions.”
He recalled a conversation he had with her on Sunday when she quizzed him on what he did for a living and why he was a policeman.
Mayor Chris Ndlela condemned the killing.
“It’s shocking how low we can stoop. It is devastating that some people can do such a thing. You don’t expect small children to be killed in this manner. It is important to appeal to our people to refrain from harming children. We have to preach the Gospel in the fight against crime and report such incidents.”
Ndlela hoped the perpetrator or perpetrators would be arrested and prosecuted.
A teacher at the school, who did not wish to be named, said they were shocked by the brutality of the murder.
Police spokesman Major Thulani Zwane said a post-mortem would determine if Thandiwe was raped.
The Mercury