Bay family desperate to find missing single mom
As the hours and days tick by, a Nelson Mandela Bay family is becoming increasingly worried about a student who failed to return home.
Ovayo Sithole, 25, was last heard from when she texted her male friend on January 30, saying she was in Despatch.
But the Images Hair Academy student, a mother of one, never returned home.
The family’s worries were compounded when a body was discovered by the police in the area this week.
However, when they went to identify the body, it was not Sithole.
Police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said Sithole was reported missing at the KwaDwesi police station on January 30.
“We are still looking for her,” Naidu said.
Sithole’s mother, Nonkosazana, said yesterday she was desperate to find her daughter.
“I stopped sleeping the moment she went missing,” Nonkosazana, from Joe Slovo West, said.
“My other child has been here to support me for four days, but will soon have to return to Cape Town for work.”
The 55-year-old said Sithole’s four-year-old daughter was constantly asking for her mother, but the family had not found the strength to tell the little girl she was missing.
“She cries for her mother, but her father and I are taking turns to look after her.”
Nonkosazana last saw Sithole at their home at about midday on January 29, when she was taking washing off the line.
“At about 2pm, I noticed she had left.
“When her child returned from school and started asking for her mother, our nightmare began.”
She said Sithole’s friend had also reached out to the family via Facebook Messenger to ask if they had seen her.
“She is normally home by 7pm.
“I had hoped she was running late and had slept over somewhere.”
The next day, at 4pm, the friend said he had heard from Sithole, and that she had informed him she was in Despatch.
When the family failed to reach her, they reported her as missing to the police.
“We were confused as she did not tell us she was going to Despatch,” the worried mother said.
She said Sithole was last seen wearing green shorts, a black T-shirt and Crocs.
Sithole’s sister, Nwabisa Shoco, who works in Cape Town, said the family was going through a difficult time.
“We need to be strong for the sake of the children,” the 36-year-old said.
“We wake up each morning and search for her until night time.
“I have to return to work on Monday, I am so stressed,” Shoco said.
Images Hair Academy owner Anny Britz said Sithole was studying to become a hairdresser.
“Ovayo is a first-year student and started with us in March,” Britz said.
“We are concerned about her safety and are pleading for her safe return.”
Nelson Mandela Bay missing people organisation Missing They Wrote is helping with the search.
“This is a very strange case and we won’t rest until she has been found,” its founder, Chaplain Bernadine Wilken, said.
Naidu said the investigation was continuing.