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By Marizka Coetzer

Journalist


No clues: Njabulo Yose, 17, gone for two weeks

Two weeks since 17-year-old Njabulo vanished. Mother fears worst, community rallies for search.


It has been two weeks and counting since Phindiwe Yose last saw her son Njabulo Yose, 17, who went missing after school.

Njabulo went missing on 13 March. He was last seen with three friends at around 9pm on the way to Kgosi Mampuru.

“We found his books earlier this week. I went to the police station to find out about it after somebody reported they found his books in the street,” she said.

Another dead end

Yose said they spoke to the lady who found the books but it didn’t help. “It is just another dead end,” she said.

“She said she found the books on 14 March in the street in Pretoria. I have never heard of that street she found the bag in.”

The desperate mother said her son didn’t have a phone so she couldn’t phone him, and now she feared the worst.

ALSO READ: Mother pleads for help to find her missing son

Last week, Yose received information that her son had been seen in a dangerous place close to Kgosi Mampuru.

“It’s not safe, even the police are scared to go there. Maybe he found his way there and is too scared to come out. He is not into drugs, because they tested him recently,” she had said initially.

On the day of her son’s disappearance, he got into a fight at school.

‘It’s like [police] are not taking it seriously’

A family friend, Pearl Ramashala, has been helping Yose look for her son. She said: “From day two, we have been doing our own investigations because of the lack of urgency of the police. It’s like they are not taking it seriously.

“When we get information from people, we go there and look for him,” she said.

They have asked the community for help to search for Njabulo.

ALSO READ: Missing kids more likely to be found alive than dead

“The mother even went to the local hospital looking for the missing son. We need to retrace his steps.

“We don’t know those boys he went with and the parents don’t want to talk,” she said.

“What that mother is going through now is not nice. I put myself in her shoes as a mom.

“Sometimes you can’t control teenagers, but that’s not the point. It has been two weeks and Njabulo needs to be found, dead or alive,” she said.

Search continues on weekend

Ramashala said the community is going to support Yose this weekend by helping to look for the missing teenager.

“It’s a dire situation,” she said.

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