Johannesburg - Three months ago, Sibongile Mathebula watched as a car knocked down her 16-year-old son, killing him.
While still grieving for him, another tragedy has struck. Her 10-year-old son has vanished. In the few minutes that she went to her bedroom to answer her phone on Friday, Siyakhula – affectionately known as Siya – left the house and hasn’t been seen since.
Mathebula, her husband, family, friends and neighbours combed Moffat View and neighbouring suburbs in the south of Joburg looking for him. They also went to church to pray for his safe return and approached prophets for help, to no avail.
“I just lost a child in March and have not healed yet. All I do is pray,” Mathebula said on Sunday.
On Friday at about 3pm, Siya was playing games on Mathebula’s cellphone in front of the heater in the lounge with his two sisters and his nephew while watching TV.
Mathebula’s phone rang and Siya gave it to her, and she took the call in her bedroom. When she was done, she realised Siya was no longer in the lounge. The others had been engrossed in the TV and didn’t notice him leaving.
The family started panicking when they couldn’t find him at the nearby park where the children play. They looked everywhere, calling his name. By 7.30pm, the family approached the police but were told that investigations would begin only after 48 hours.
The search party continued in the dark. When they approached their house, they saw a police officer who told them a boy had been found at The Glen Shopping Centre. Mathebula rushed there, only to find it wasn’t Siya, but a two-year-old who was found wandering the streets alone. He was taken to a place of safety and his mother was arrested.
Mathebula said she had not been able to sleep since Siya’s disappearance. “Whenever I read about missing children, I used to judge their parents, saying they were careless. But it has happened to me and I’ve realised it can happen in the wink of an eye,” she said.
Police spokeswoman Warrant Officer Lorraine van Emmerik said the police were investigating a missing-person case. Immediately after Siya was reported missing, a small task team was deployed to start looking for him.
The Star