The five-year-old survivor of an abduction in Soweto this week, in which his two friends were brutally murdered, is having nightmares and flashbacks about the incident.
“But we hope that with time, it'll pass,” the boy's father told the Sunday Times. “On Thursday, he asked about his friends who were killed. We told him a little bit but we couldn't give him the entire story.
“We can't talk much about what happened but the way he explained it, he said he saw the men who took his friends and that they chased him with a knife. He tried to escape and ran for a distance. We don't know how he survived because he's still young, he's only five, but he was able to save himself.”
The child is the sole witness to the snatching of Nqobizitha Zulu, 5, and Tshiamo Rabanye, 6, on Wednesday evening as the trio were playing at Thokoza park in Rockville, Soweto.
The mutilated bodies of the other two boys were found a day later in Rockville and White City by residents after a desperate search by police and community members.
Both boys had their genitals removed, while Zulu also had his nose and lips cut off. Their bodies were dumped 1.4km from each other. The police did not want to comment on reports that these were muti killings.
“One was discovered in White City, while the other was discovered later in Rockville,” police spokesperson Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said.
The distraught father said the three boys were playing in the park when the killers grabbed one child while he was on the park swings and the other who was next to him.
He said while the family was relieved by their child's lucky escape, it was painful to have lost the other two children.
The boy's mother said she can't sleep as she thinks about the two boys who played with her son.
“They used to all play in the yard and would come meet me as I returned home, grabbing my skirt from behind or asking for money,” she recalled fondly.
Earlier this week, Rabanye's grandmother, Nqobile Ndlovu, told TimesLIVE she left him playing with his cousin and friend at home. When she returned and he was gone, she and other family members immediately reported him missing.
“We then rushed to Moroka police station and the police were quick to assist us...”
A widespread search followed. “I got a call to return to White City with the police because the patrollers found a child. When we got here, I didn’t get too close to the scene, I just recognised his clothes. My sister saw him and later told me that they slit his throat and cut his private parts.
“I’m so shattered, I don’t understand. It’s like I’m dreaming and I’ll wake up from this nightmare,” said the grandmother, who raised the boy because both his parents are dead.
The park has become a security risk at night, especially during load-shedding, according to Rockville and White City residents.
Power cuts and a lack of maintenance contributed to an increase in crime there, they said.
One resident said several bodies had been dumped there.
Mofolo South and White City community policing forum chair Melusi Hlatshwayo said Thokoza Park and others around Soweto had become crime hotspots.
“We know exactly where our crimes happen mostly. Because they would come to places like this park ... some of the kids would come chill under the trees. So when the car parks there, [it's easy to] pick up a child and go with them.
“Parks are so quiet and [it's easy] for criminals to do their activities without any disturbance. You'll find hijacked cars there abandoned, women and children are being raped there. Parks are being used for criminality. So we can [classify] them as red-zone areas at the moment.”
Nokuthula Skhakhani, a member of the Gauteng community safety brigade and a Rockville resident, blamed the criminality on “negligence”.
“The grass goes uncut and bridges are not fixed. We're no longer allowed to even use the toilets there. The way these parks are being neglected, it's become a very serious issue,” she said.
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