CAPE TOWN - SAPS detectives in Kuilsrivier in Cape Town have have charged a 59-year-old man with the murder of his son, the SAPS in the Western Cape said on Sunday.
The suspect was reported missing, with his 12-year-old son, in Kuilsrivier on November 30, Brigadier Novela Potelwa said in a statement.
"As part of the police investigation into their disappearance, pictures and details were subsequently circulated in a bid to locate their whereabouts. Police in Van Rhynsdorp, a small town on the West Coast, recognised the father from circulated photographs of the two."
He was taken in and transported to Cape Town. On Saturday afternoon "he confessed to killing his son" and pointed out where the body was buried. Detectives, with the support of other crime scene experts, retrieved the decomposed body near a canal in Soneike in Kuilsrivier on Saturday afternoon.
DNA tests to determine whether the body was indeed that of the 12-year-old missing boy would be conducted soon. The father, a Namibian national, was in custody and would appear in court soon, Potelwa said.
In an unrelated case, SAPS anti-gang unit detectives and Steenberg police were pursuing specific leads following an incident in which a five-year-old boy was shot dead in Drury Court, Lavender Hill on Saturday afternoon.
"It is alleged that a 22-year-old was also shot and seriously wounded in the same incident. He was transported to hospital where he remains in a critical condition. Deployments in the area have been intensified in an effort to restore calm and safety," Potelwa said.