‘Nothing happening on 4-year-old’s murder case’
“IT IS still very painful and with this kind of pain you at least expect to see something happening.”
These were the words of Khayelitsha resident Danile Ngongoshe, father of 4-yearold murdered Iyapha Yamile as yesterday marked a month since two men arrested in connection with the child’s rape and murder, were freed.
While the family was informed that foreign DNA was found on Iyapha’s body, no breakthrough in the investigation has been made nearly two months after her halfnaked body was found stuffed in a plastic bag on May 1.
The charges against the two men were withdrawn in the Khayelitsha Magistrate’s Court as there was no evidence linking them to the crime.
Police are tight-lipped on the investigation, as the matter is at a “sensitive stage”.
Iyapha had been playing with friends when she disappeared on April 30.
Ngongoshe said police had suspected that the DNA found on the child’s body may have been of a minor.
“It appears that the investigation is going slow at the moment… We will have to let the law run its course. We do not have anyone to suspect. We were also informed that there was foreign DNA found and they suspect that it might have been of someone aged 16… They are still searching for that person,” he said.
Ngongoshe who knew one of the suspects initially arrested as he was the father of Iyapha’s friend, said he had not seen the man after angry residents demolished his shack.
“We have not heard about what happened to the two suspects. You will recall their shacks were demolished. Everyone is not interested in them because no one wants to take the law in their own hands,” he said.
“Because of the slow pace in which this has been conducted as well for the fact that no one has been arrested, we are in a way losing hope because the person who did this may have left the area long time ago especially after the release of the two suspects,” said Ngongoshe.
Police spokesperson Novela Potelwa said: “Unfortunately details of the investigation cannot be discussed in the public domain… As SAPS we are in constant contact with the family of Iyapha… briefing them on developments in the investigation.”