Family of murdered Mpumalanga children, one an albino, live in fear

The family of two children – one of them an albino – who were kidnapped from their home in Hlalanikahle in eMalahleni in Mpumalanga last month and later found murdered are now living in fear of their lives, family members said on Saturday.

“Our lives are tough because it’s not good to feel unsafe in your own home,” the murdered children’s elder sister Chantall Ngwenya said at the family home.

Gabisile Shabane, a 14-year-old girl with albanism, and a 15-month-old boy Nkosikhona Ngwenya were kidnapped from their home in Hlalanikahle on January 28, allegedly by three men who entered their home after breaking a window.

The body of one child was subsequently discovered in Cullinan, east of Pretoria and the other was found on the side of the N4 earlier this week, Mpumalanga police spokesman Brigadier Leonard Hlathi said.

A 32-year-old traditional healer was arrested on Tuesday night in connection with the incident. The man was remanded in custody when he appeared in the Witbank Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, and was due back in court on February 26 for a formal bail application, Hlathi said.

Chantall said her family believed the incident related to rituals, because Gabisile was an albino. She said their fear was caused by the fact that there was still another child with albinism in their family.

“We did not choose to have albinos in our family. They [Gabisile and another unnamed child with albinism] did not choose to be albinos. I don’t know why people regard albinos as a target to make money,” she said.

Chantall’s mother Annah Shabane was too distraught to talk about the matter on Saturday.

Speaking outside the house after visiting the family on Saturday, Mpumalanga police commissioner Maj-Gen Mondli Zuma said it was still too early for police to say the motive for the incident was related to rituals.

“One body was dismembered and another is in a state of decomposition. The family has identified the bodies but we are still waiting for the results of the scientific laboratory [DNA test] process,” Zuma said.

– African News Agency (ANA)

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