The Citizen (KZN)

Teen gone for 2 weeks

NO CLUES: NJABULO NEEDS TO BE FOUND, DEAD OR ALIVE – FAMILY FRIEND Boy’s books were found in street a day after disappeara­nce – but it’s a dead end.

- Marizka Coetzer marizkac@citizen.co.za

It has been two weeks and counting since Phindiwe Yose last saw her son Njabulo Yose, 17, who went missing after school. Njabulo went missing on 13 March. He was last seen with three friends at around 9pm on the way to Kgosi Mampuru.

“We found his books earlier this week. I went to the police station to find out about it after somebody reported they found his books in the street,” she said.

Yose said they spoke to the lady who found the books but it didn’t help. “It is just another dead end,” she said.

“She said she found the books on 14 March in the street in Pretoria. I have never heard of that street she found the bag in.”

The desperate mother said her son didn’t have a phone so she couldn’t phone him, and now she feared the worst.

Last week Yose received informatio­n that her son had been seen in a dangerous place close to Kgosi Mampuru.

“It’s not safe, even the police are scared to go there. Maybe he found his way there and is too scared to come out. He is not into drugs, because they tested him recently,” she had said initially.

On the day of her son’s disappeara­nce, he got into a fight at school.

A family friend, Pearl Ramashala, has been helping Yose look for her son. She said: “From day two we have been doing our own investigat­ions because of the lack of urgency of the police. It’s like they are not taking it seriously.

“When we get informatio­n from people, we go there and look for him,” she said.

They have asked the community for help to search for Njabulo.

“The mother even went to the local hospital looking for the missing son. We need to retrace his steps.

“We don’t know those boys he went with and the parents don’t want to talk,” she said.

“What that mother is going through now is not nice. I put myself in her shoes as a mom.

“Sometimes you can’t control teenagers, but that’s not the point. It has been two weeks and Njabulo needs to be found, dead or alive,” she said.

Ramashala said the community is going to support Yose this weekend by helping to look for the missing teenager.

“It’s a dire situation,” she said.

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