Johannesburg - Police have arrested a man, 54, after the discovery of his mother in a drum filled with cement.
He was arrested four days after he reported her missing.
Spokesperson for the Gauteng Police Lieutenant-Colonel Kay Makhubele said the man arrived at the Brakpan Police on Thursday, June 4, to report his elderly mother was missing.
Makhubele said they immediately dispatched a search party to look for her.
For four days, he said, police combed the area looking for her, but that did not yield any results.
Police made a breakthrough during a canvass of the neighbourhood on Monday, while interviewing neighbours.
"The neighbours told the police that the man had been acting strange over the weekend," Mkhubeke said, but did not elaborate on what the neighbours meant.
Police then questioned the man again, and Makhubele said he then confessed he had killed his mother.
"Upon arrival, the man was found sitting outside the house looking distressed. He was interrogated and said that he suffocated his mother to death with a pillow while she was asleep on Thursday night.
"He then mixed cement in a drum outside and he forcefully pressed her lifeless body in it.
"He led police to the scene where the drum was. Forensics found her body after cutting the drum open. The man has been arrested and charged with murder. He will appear at the Brakpan Magistrate's Court soon," Makhubele said.
Brakpan SAPS station commander Brigadier Friedl Jonck applauded the community for helping the police with information that led to the arrest of the man.