SULENKAMA – QUMBU – A couple aged 32 and 23 years, both from Mbizana, were arrested by Sulenkama police on Wednesday, 21 January 2026 at about 19:45 for the murder of a three-year-old baby boy that was committed in Gqwesa locality, Sulenkama, on 1 September 2024.
According to SAPS spokesperson Captain Welile Matyolo, the 23-year-old female suspect reported to SAPS Mbizana in 2024 that her 3-year-old baby boy went missing at a fuel filling station in Mbizana, but police investigations with CCTV cameras’ assistance proved otherwise.
“Further investigations revealed that the baby was assaulted to death by his stepfather using a stick whilst they were all in Sulenkama, where his mother’s boyfriend was still working,” Matyolo said.
He added that the child was allegedly born whilst both suspects were already in a relationship, but the boyfriend is not the father of the child.
“After the child’s death, both suspects put him in a 20-litre bucket, tightly closed it with wire and secretly buried the child in a small grave.”
Matyolo added that the mother thereafter went to Mbizana police station to report the child as missing. “The couple showed the police the baby boy’s grave in Sulenkama, and it was excavated and the decomposed body of the boy was found still inside the bucket.”
The duo face murder charges, whilst a charge of defeating the ends of justice has been added to the female suspect. Both suspects are to appear before Qumbu Magistrates’ Court today, 23 January.
The OR Tambo District Commissioner, Major General Norman Modishana, said: “It is so heartbreaking and sad that a human life can be lost in such a gruesome manner, but let the law take its course.” He condemned the brutal murder of an innocent child whilst also applauding investigators for their sterling work in uncovering the truth.
