Lerato charged with perjury

MOST of us are familiar with the story of the boy who cried wolf but would find it sad to learn that the story of Lerato Moloi is quite similar to the popular fable.

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Community members were frantic and social media was abuzz last week as community members voiced their concerns over this young womans disappearance for the second time, many praying that she would return home safely.

The Vryheid SAPS have confirmed that the 18-year-old was never kidnapped in the first place.

The first time Lerato went missing, she returned home the next day, claiming that three men in a silver Ford Bantam had abducted her.

She elaborately explained to the police how the three had taken her to an unknown room in Nquthu, where she was locked in a room with five other women. She claimed that the men took photos of her, and loaded them online to initiate a bidding war. She said she had somehow managed to escape her captors after nightfall and made her way back to Bhekuzulu.

Lerato’s story set in motion a high profile investigation into a possible human trafficking syndicate operating from Vryheid. It was a matter of days before the news made national headlines and was even being discussed as an urgent matter in parliament by the National Cabinet Committee for Safety and Security.

“Lerato pointed out two foreign nationals who own a tuckshop on the route to Nquthu, as the ones who had taken her. The two were arrested and detained for questioning but they were never charged and they did not appear in court. They were released due to the lack of evidence linking them to the case,” said Lt Col. JT du Plessis of the Organised Crime Unit, the detective who saw through Lerato’s lies and closed the case.

Questions posed to the teen by the police, led to her breaking down in tears and claiming that she hadn’t been taken by the foreign nationals but had actually been kidnapped by a man who had been propositioning her since Grade 10.

Concocting another elaborate lie, Lerato told the police that this man had taken her to his home in Nquthu.

“She said that she managed to escape through a stable door at the man’s house, and hid in his car, until he drove to a tavern in Mondlo that night, where she managed to escape and returned to Bhekuzulu,” said Col du Plessis.

The police then took the teen to the alleged house and there they found that there was no stable door. Moreover, there were people that were renting in the house, none of whom knew nor had seen Lerato before.

Things took an interesting turn when Lerato vanished again on Monday last week, only returning home on Wednesday. While her frantic parents feared that her ‘kidnappers’ were exacting their revenge, it turned out that the teen had taken her father’s cell-phone when she left home to visit her boyfriend, and had lost the cell phone somewhere along the route. She had not come home as she did not want to tell her parents that she had lost the cell-phone.

When she returned home, Lerato admitted that she had been visiting her new boyfriend on both occasions that she had ‘gone missing’ but had been afraid to be honest about it to her parents as she currently has a four-month old baby with another man.

The Vryheid SAPS worked tirelessly to get to the bottom of Lerato’s story.

She has since been charged with perjury as she gave a statement under oath at the local police station.

Attempts were made to contact Lerato’s parents after the case was closed but to no avail.