The Bloemfontein police are probing the baffling kidnapping and gruesome murder of teenager Machaka Radebe (16).
The frantic search for the teen ended in tragedy on Monday, 4 December, when a passer-by discovered her body at about 02:00 in an open field in Phase 9, Bloemfontein.
The grief-stricken family has asked for privacy to mourn, while hoping the police will make a breakthrough in the investigation to bring the culprits to book.
Brig. Motantsi Makhele, spokesperson for the Free State police, confirmed that Machaka had a stab wound in the back. Her killing came two days after she had been reported missing on Saturday.
She mysteriously disappeared from her home in Thakalekoala Street, Rocklands.
The vehicles of mourners who frequent the home of the slain Machaka are a common scene since the shocking news of her murder.
Machaka’s murder came in the wake of her brother reporting that an unknown man had demanded cash and further threatened that his sister would die. He received the death threat upon calling Machaka’s phone searching for her after he noticed she was not in her bedroom at about 12:45. He had last seen her at 12:00 the same day.
The police said upon the man demanding the ransom, the brother immediately informed their mother and they opened a case of kidnapping at the Kagisanong Police Station.
The police have launched a manhunt for the kidnapper(s) and murderer(s) of Machaka, who was a Gr. 10 learner at the Brebner High School in Bloemfontein.
Machaka’s kidnapping and killing coincides with an ongoing search for two young Bloemfontein women: Lerato Masiu (23) and Lesego Mamello Motaung (22). Their disappearance remains unexplainable too.
The police have their hands full trying to put pieces of the puzzle together. Masiu was reported missing on 16 November, and Motaung on 30 October. There has still been no sight of them, amid the ongoing search and the clarion call for the public to help in tracing them.
According to the police, information received from Masiu’s parent claims that, before her disappearance, she had come home with an unknown African male who claimed he was a police officer investigating an incident on Facebook, involving Masiu. She never returned home after leaving with the bogus police officer at about 12:30, raising suspicions of human trafficking.
There are conflicting reports regarding Motaung’s
disappearance. The police said according to information received from the aunt, young
Motaung had left her home in Uitsig, saying she was going to work at a food
chain restaurant in Zastron Street, Westdene. However, one of Motaung’s
colleagues alleged that she had reported being sick with ulcers.
According to the Organised Crime Index released in September this year, produced by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime (GI-TOC), South Africa is fertile ground for human trafficking and is ranked seventh out of 193 countries on a scale that measures criminality. Young females are most vulnerable to human trafficking, the report revealed.
The SAPS has reported a spike in kidnapping cases, with almost 4 000 people kidnapped between July and September this year. In the report on crime statistics, delivered by Police Minister Bheki Cele, it was revealed that about 136 kidnapping cases were for ransom.
In the Free State alone, 130 kidnapping cases were reported the period in question, it was revealed.
Anyone with helpful information about the whereabouts of Motaung and Masiu, or Machaka’s killers, is requested to call Col Msokoli Bolsiek on 082-466-8530 or Const. Tumo Godfrey Choane on 082-465-5945.
People can also submit information on the My SAPS app or contact Crime Stop on 08600-10111.
