It started as a mystery, with reports of a group of children in a Manenberg storm-water drain - but now the provincial Social Development Department is investigating allegations that four boys in the group are from the Boys Town reformatory and were abused before they sought refuge in the drain.
The children are believed to have been hiding in the drain since Sunday. Residents had reported hearing children’s voices coming from below, and on Tuesday a search began after the police and Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service were called out.
Reports varied about how many children were in the drain. Some said 15, but later the figure came down to nine. When the search began at about 2am, police used sniffer dogs to try to locate the group of girls and boys in the maze of underground stormwater drains.
Later in the day residents claimed that some of the children had taken refuge in the drain because of abuse while at different children’s homes.
Social Development MEC Patricia de Lille’s spokesman Steven Otter said the department was investigating the allegations.
“We are busy investigating because it appears that four boys found in the drain are from Boys Town in Macassar. But at this stage we can’t confirm anything,” said Otter.
He said the department was “definitely” taking the matter seriously. Residents also spoke about other children’s homes, but Otter said he couldn’t confirm this. “Bonnytown has usually got about 64 or 65 children if I’m not mistaken. At last count everyone was there,” said Otter.
When the Cape Times went to the scene on Tuesday morning, hundreds of residents were gathered around three manholes along the road, hoping to spot the children.
Riyaaz October, who went down a manhole to look, said he saw movement in the tunnel but couldn’t locate them.
“They’re all youngsters. Six guys came with me. If we could get torches we would be able to get to them. I heard that one boy’s name is Cheslyn and the other one is Wayne. We heard they’re running away from their home,” said October.
He said the search was in its fourth day.
Manenberg police spokes-man Llewellyn Lakay said nine children reported to have been in the drain were all accounted for on Tuesday.
He said they started to search again when reports of two other children came in.
“Now we are looking for a girl and a boy,” said Lakay.
He said the police K9 unit searched all the way to Langa but found nothing.
“They even searched in Lansdowne and Philippi. They even searched under the Manenberg pool and it was empty,” said Lakay.
Danfred Olifant, from the police K9 unit, said he found no sign of the children when he resurfaced. “We walked for about 5km and found absolutely nothing. It’s so dark, if you put on your torch you still can’t see anything,” said Olifant.
Residents said that since Friday they had heard voices coming from a drain in Manenberg Avenue.
They claimed two boys and a young girl were left behind. Naazneen Salie and Kashifa Stemmet spoke about a young girl. “She could be heard saying: ‘The boys are scared of the police. They think the police will take them,’ ” Salie said.
“She was crying and said she wanted her mommy.”
Another resident, John Hofmester, said he and his friends had been inside the sewer tunnels since late on Monday night to find the children. “At night we hear people talking but we can’t see or get to them,” he said.
Mario Wanza, of Proudly Manenberg, said they had no idea who the children were or how many were in the drain.
“We’re still trying to get information. It’s very sketchy at the moment,” said Wanza.
Cape Town’s emergency services and the police resumed their search just before 5pm on Tuesday after further reports of children in the drain.
Two rescue teams went underground and searched the 1,3m-diameter drains.
Metro EMS were also on hand to assist.
Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Theo Layne said: “I can confirm that there are no children in those drains.
“We did an extensive search from Surrey Estate to Lansdowne along Manenberg Avenue and found no one.
“The nine children that were in there were found by police. There were reports about another three boys and one girl, but those were unconfirmed reports by community members which prompted the further search, but no one was found.”
Layne said rescue services left the area and by 8pm on Tuesday night only metro police were patrolling the area.
Late last night residents were still gathered around most of the drains along Manenberg Avenue and other streets.- Cape Times