Alleged rapist captured
A social network page helps police track down an alleged child killer. .

ACORNHOEK – A social-network page apparently helped capture a man suspected of raping and murdering a seven-year-old girl. According to the head of communications of COPE Mpumalanga, Mr Riot Hlatshwayo, the party’s social web page was instrumental in the hunt for the suspect.
Hlatshwayo said Mr Edgar Sydwell (30), who apparently goes by two other surnames – Mabaso and Mabunda – was arrested in Dientjie near Graskop last weekend when his new girlfriend saw his picture published by the party on its social-media page and alerted the community as well as the police.
Mpumalanga police spokesman
Col Leonard Hlathi, said Sydwell ap-peared in the Mhala Magistrate’s Court in Thulamahashe on Monday on several charges including kidnapping, rape and murder. He was remanded in custody pending his next appearance on August 19.
Hlatshwayo said Sydwell had allegedly asked a pastor from New Forest Village for shelter, claiming to be poverty-stricken. He eventually impregnated the pastor’s daughter which resulted in the father booting him out of the home.
He then became angry and apparently kidnapped the seven-year-old daughter of the same woman (the pastor’s daughter) he had allegedly impregnated.
“This hooligan then had the audacity to call the child’s mother to inform her of the kidnapping and told he he had raped the child. He then called her a second time to inform her of the murder,” said Hlatshwayo. Hlathi confirmed that Sydwell then apparently directed the girl’s mother to the location of the body.