Two girls found chopped to pieces

This part of Katlehong has not had electricity for three months

PENSIONER Joseph Mpanza last saw his granddaughter in her usual jovial and freespirited mood late last week. On Sunday, he returned home to heartbreaking news that she was missing.

Mpanza was yesterday inconsolable knowing he will never see his beloved Nonkululeko Mpanza alive again.

The 8-year-old’s lifeless body was found with that of her 9-year-old friend Nompumelelo Mhlongo on Monday.

The Cape Times’s sister publication, The Star, has reliably learnt that the girls were chopped to pieces and stuffed into a bag.

Police said the two children were last seen playing together on Sunday afternoon not too from their home.

A community member discovered the bodies at a bushy piece of land enclosed with concrete palisade adjacent to a section of Katlehong.

A heartbroken Mpanza said: “I went to a funeral in Ulundi (KwaZulu-Natal). When I arrived home on Sunday afternoon, I was told the children were missing.

“We searched everywhere for them, until we were told they were found dead here,” he said, referring to the notorious enclosed space with overgrown grass.

“That child was good. She had a good spirit,” he said.

“She always listened when reprimanded.”

The Star arrived at the scene just as a forensic team of the police was completing combing it for clues.

As soon as police left, angry community members brought down the concrete palisade fence surrounding the piece of land.

Katlehong residents have nicknamed the notorious space “the jungle”. They said many social ills had taken place there.

“Let it fall. They kill our children here,” one woman shouted, while a group of men brought down the concrete fence.

The bodies were found in the part of Katlehong that has not had electricity for the past three months.

Eskom switched it off because residents do not want prepaid split meters. Residents said the murderer took advantage of the darkness.

“It gets very dark by 6pm. You can’t see anything. Maybe we’d have seen him dumping the bodies here,” said Dimakatso Zwane.

Gauteng Premier David Makhura yesterday said his government was “utterly outraged” at Eskom’s decision to leave the area in the dark.

“The executive council resolved to institute urgent legal proceedings to force Eskom to restore electricity supply to the area,” said Thabo Masebe, spokesperson for the provincial government.

South Africa was reeling from several cases of children who go missing and are later found dead.

Just this month, 10-year-old Katlego Joja was found dead near a river in D2 Mamelodi West, east of Pretoria.

Police spokesperson Captain Mavela Masondo would not confirm nor refute that the children were found in a bag.

“We suspect that these children were murdered somewhere and dumped where they were found,” Masondo said.