Family and friends of a final year University of Johannesburg (UJ) B.Com student Palesa Madiba, who has been missing for three years, are devastated at the possibility the bones found buried in the yard of a friend’s family home in Soweto are hers, The Citizen said.
Social media was flooded with messages of shock on Tuesday after police exhumed the bones of a female at the house where Madiba was last seen in Phiri, Soweto. The police had received an anonymous call and followed up the tip-off.
Some tweeted that the family should be held responsible, but people who knew both Madiba and her friend Tshidi Mkhwanazi were still in disbelief, saying there was no apparent jealousy in their friendship.
Madiba, who would have graduated in 2014, disappeared after spending a weekend with a friend. Mkhwanazi told Madiba’s family she had gone to work and had asked Palesa to leave the keys with a neighbour.
Instead, Palesa gave the keys to Mkhwanazi’s uncle, who was taken in for questioning but was later released. Subsequently, he got a restraining order against Palesa’s family, claiming they were harassing him.
Madiba was on her way to a 10am lecture at the university when she was last seen. A friend of hers at UJ, Lerato Peka, was in shock.
“I hope the bones are hers because that would mean her family would at least find closure, that would mean they can bury her and she would rest in peace,” she said.
Peka added: “I also knew her friend Tshidi – they were very close. When she went missing we all prayed for her family and her best friend Tshidi, but after yesterday [Tuesday] I don’t know how to think of this matter.”
Madiba’s cousin Thabiso Tsoledi said the family was reeling. “We are not sure if the bones belong to Palesa, but the fact there was someone buried in the backyard, the same backyard that my cousin never came home from, sends chills down my spine. My family is going through hell. Palesa’s mother is shattered.”
Captain Tsekiso Mofokeng said there were no suspects yet, but the case was being treated as a priority to get the results of tests on the bones as quickly as possible.
– batlilep@citizen.co.za
Read original story on citizen.co.za
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