Two more suspects have been arrested for the brutal and senseless murder of five-year-old Ditebogo Phalane.

According to Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Wendy Nkabi, the Pretoria-based team, with the Arcadia Crime Prevention Unit and Tshwane District Crime Intelligence, arrested two more suspects yesterday.

Little Ditebogo was shot and killed in front of his dad in a hijacking in the driveway of their Soshanguve home, earlier this month.

An unconfirmed number of armed suspects hijacked the father’s bakkie and shot the five-year-old boy, who later died in hospital.

Arrests

Nkabi says information received from Crime Intelligence was operationalised late last night, leading the multi-disciplinary team to Soshanguve and Atteridgeville, respectively, where two suspects were arrested and two unlicensed firearms were recovered.

“One of the firearms is alleged to be the murder weapon used in the murder of Ditebogo Phalane, but that will be confirmed once the firearms have been sent for testing.”

Nkabi says the arrested duo, aged 29 and 30 years old respectively, are expected to appear in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court tomorrow.

Two suspects, aged 30 and 36, were initially arrested last week. They one made a brief appearance in the Soshanguve Magistrate’s Court, while the other appeared in the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court. Their matter was postponed to next week.

Family heartbroken

Family spokesperson Gift Makoti previously said the tragedy had struck their family in the most unimaginable way.

He added that their family is heartbroken, and he appealed to anyone with information to come forward to assist the authorities in their investigation.

Ditebogo Junior recently became a big brother. He was laid to rest on Friday.