Family guest believed to have killed boy in neighbour ’ s house
Second murder in same house in three weeks
WHEN a Tembisa woman opened her home to a man who had been chased away by his relatives she did not think of what was to follow.
Three weeks later her son was found dead in a house nearby, killed allegedly by the family guest.
The murder happened at Esiphethweni section, which is across the street from the boy’s home in Vusimuzi informal settlement.
The home owner had asked the man to look after the house as she was visiting her family in the Eastern Cape.
The body of 8-year-old Tebogo Khunou was found hidden under a bed. He was found by a preacher, who was accompanied by a man who is now the suspect in the murder, after a long search for the boy.
Tebogo ’ s mother, Christina Mokonyane, had accommodated the man at her own home as he was homeless after his own family had chased him out.
He shared a room with Tebogo before house sitting.
The formal house had electricity while Tebogo’s shack home did not.
The boy would spend time at the other house with a familiar man he had come to call “Malome” (uncle), all because he could watch TV there.
On the day Tebogo disappeared, he had been flying his kite in front of the house for most of the day, said Mokonyane.
He then followed the man to the house to watch TV.
“When I called out for him to come back home for his bath time around 6pm, he was no longer on the street. Other children said they saw him with Malome. He said he [earlier] gave him 50 cents to buy snacks.
“He helped us look for him and even accompanied me to report him as missing.”
Mokonyane said Tebogo’s siblings went to the same house the following day to watch TV.
“The children followed this man to that house because we do not have electricity,” she said.
Mokonyane said she learned from a neighbour three days later that a body was found at the same house.
“The police called me into the bedroom. There was a bed that was properly made.
“They pulled up the bed and I saw my son lying there face up.
“He wore the same clothes and had a cloth that he was strangled with around the neck.
“It was painful to see him like that, but I was relieved we found him.”
Mokonyane said she could not believe that Malome committed the “horrendous” crime.
“He was like a brother to me. I trusted him. He slept in the same room with that child for three weeks. I am shocked.”
The man handed himself over to the police and was charged with murder. He is expected to apply for bail in the Tembisa Magistrate’s Court on July 22
Meanwhile, the owner of the house is out on bail for another murder. She allegedly stabbed her boyfriend to death in the same house on June 16.
Constable Patricia Mgijima confirmed the incidents.