It has been a year since Nhlakanipho Khaya Nkosi (6) disappeared and his remains later found in a ditch at this mountainous extension. For more than 365 days, his family has been waiting to bury him.

Nhlakanipho was allegedly found dead on December 22. The upper part of his body was missing.

His loved ones are now demanding for justice to be served to the person who is allegedly responsible.

According to his aunt, Sarah Nkosi, they have no peace. “We are struggling to accept it and we do not have closure since we did not have a funeral for him. This is not easy for us, especially because we have not received an update from the police. The worst is that we still do not have all his remains.

“We recently went to follow up, but we were told to wait. We also do not understand when they will be done with the DNA results. We want to bury a complete corpse, not just half like a thrown away animal. He deserves to be laid to rest like the person he was, and with dignity,” Nkosi said.

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In January, the community grew worried when yet another child went missing. That kid was, however, later found. After that incident, angry community members of Coromandel marched to SAPS Lydenburg’s detective branch to deliver a memorandum of grievances. The protesters said they were unhappy with the progress in a case of alleged murder and they felt that their children were not safe.

Nkosi said she suspected one of the residents to be responsible for the disappearance of the kid.

“I managed to identify the alleged suspect with the child entering a KFC outlet, through CCTV footage obtained by the police at a filling station in Belfast. But when I looked at it at a later stage, it looked different,” she said.

A community representative, Titus Mcimela, said, “We do not understand what is happening with the case and the family informed us that they are unhappy. We want the suspects to be arrested and justice to be served. We are worried because if the suspect got away with it last time, he/she might do it again. We live in fear for our kids’ safety,”
he said.

Provincial police spokesperson, Brig Leonard Hlathi, said the case has not been closed as they are waiting for DNA test that are done in Pretoria.

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“As the police, we believe that the outcome of the tests will give direction in relation to the DNA results. It is unfortunate that it is taking time to get the results however the matter is dealt with accordingly. At this point, the local SAPS cannot determine when the results will be back since they are not done locally.We are eager to continue working on the case until the results come back,” he explained. Hlathi added that the police would like to plead with the family to be patient since the local SAPS are still waiting for the DNA tests.