A 73-year-old woman locks herself inside her room most of the time and refuses to speak to people.
Please help Yeoville police officers find Julia Thembelihle Mbuli’s relatives. She has been living in Observatory for more than four years.
Constable Lindiwe Nwoko and Constable Thabo Malatji of Yeoville Police Station said they would like to find Mbuli’s family as they do not know what might happen to her in future. “She has been staying here for a while now and we are worried about her because we don’t know her family,” the constables said.
Nwoko said they have been trying to trace her family without success. She has tried to get Mbuli a decent place to stay, but she does not want to move. “I organised her a better place to stay – an old age home where she would have someone to look after her – but she refused to move,” Nwoko said.
Her neighbours said she locks herself in her room almost every day. “She hardly leaves that room. There is no electricity in there either. When I want to give her food, I knock and stand there for a very long time. She does not want to open the door. I eventually leave the food next to the door and she takes it when she wants to,” said a concerned neighbour who wanted to remain anonymous.
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When The Express visited her, she only opened the window and spoke to Nwoko and Malatji.
Mbuli started living in Observatory while working as a domestic. She then fell ill and when she came back to work, she found that her boss had hired someone else. “She was staying on the streets. A friend of hers, who was renting the room that Mbuli now lives in, gave her shelter and Mbuli has never gone anywhere ever since,” said Malatji.
“The last time I went to KwaZulu-Natal was 40 years ago. I don’t know my siblings and I don’t have any children. I have not been well lately and not even a single family member has paid me a visit,” said Mbuli. She lives off her grant money and the food her neighbours give her. Nwoko and Malatji also help her with food.
Anyone with information about her family can contact Nwoko or Malatji.
Details: Constable Lindiwe Nwoko 082 537 7184; Constable Thabo Malatji 076 727 5384.
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