Mahikeng - The situation was tense in Mmabatho, North West, on Friday following the death of two boys who were at the centre of a police kidnapping investigation.
Irate residents gathered near the boys' homes waiting for North West premier Job Mokgoro to visit the families on Friday. The angry crowd vowed to chase foreign nationals out of Mahikeng.
Onalenna Molehabangwe and Gontse Cholo, both 10-years-old, were reported to have been kidnapped and later found dead in a swimming pool at a house in Imperial Reserve, Mahikeng on Thursday.
"That house is a problem, it is not for the first time that there are crimes committed there. Last year we removed foreign nationals selling drugs," said one resident who did not want to be identified.
He said the owner of the house had died and his relatives rented the house out to foreign nationals.
"We are waiting for the premier to address us, thereafter we are going to remove all foreign nationals. We are starting with fake traditional healers and drug lords," he said.
Onalenna and Gontse were cousins and their homes are separated by a street. They were reported missing on Tuesday.
"Gontse's mother Dimakatso Cholo said her second-born child went to play on Tuesday but did not return.
"I went out looking for him as it was time for him. I was informed that he was put in a car... I hoped to find him alive. I did not sleep the first night he was missing. I cannot cope," she said sobbing.
Dimakatso Cholo, the mother of Gontse, said she had hoped to found her son alive. Picture: Molaole Montsho/African News Agency (ANA)
She said the two were found floating in a swimming pool with swollen faces.
"One was bleeding on his side, the other one had his tongue coming out of his mouth as if he was strangled," she said.
"It was difficult for us to identified them based on their conditions. We identified them through their clothes. We did not examine them much," she said.
Residents gathered at the bereaved family while others chanted near the house.