Family will miss girl found in river
Puzzling how autistic niece vanished – uncle
The family of the little girl found floating in a river after she went missing will miss her deep laughs and angelic singing.
Katlego Joja, 10, went missing on Thursday from her home in Mamelodi West, which is also a creche.
Yesterday, community members reacated angrily to the news of Katlego’s death by barricading roads with burning tyres. Her lifeless body was discovered in the Moretele River, not far from her home, on Sunday evening.
Her uncle, Thabiso Storom, said the family was still puzzled by how Katlego disappeared from a controlled environment. “There is always someone outside to receive children coming to school. She did not leave through the gate. Someone would have heard the sound of the gate. She hated heights and could not have jumped over the gate,” Storom said.
Storom, 39, said Katlego’s grandmother had just finished helping her get ready to join other children in the creche when she mysteriously disappeared.
He said his niece, who had autism, vanished between the door of the family house and the door of the creche, which are less than five metres apart.
“We have a lot of questions but no answers … her parents are devastated. She loved to sing praise songs. She would listen to a song once and sing it accurately. What I will miss most is her laughter. She would laugh deep and we had to stop her in fear of her having stomach cramps,” he said.
Storom said they only broke the news to Katlego’s elder brother, 13, yesterday afternoon, saying he was saddened by the terrible news. “We removed him to stay at my house when his sister went missing.”
Katlego attended Lignovitae Academy, an autism school in Silverton, until last year. Her father, Sipho Joja, 39, was still looking for a new school for her.
Her mother Thabang was too distraught to talk. Police are yet to establish the cause of Katlego’s death and have opened an inquest docket into her death.