Mabopane missing son found after three months in government mortuary
A Mabopane family blames the terminus police station for their trauma, after their 22-year-old son was found in a government mortuary after three months.
A Mabopane family blames the Terminus police for not following up on their missing son’s case, after Mpendulo Sambo’s body was found to have been in a government mortuary for the past three months.
Mpendulo (22) was reported missing by his mother, Salaphani Sambo, when he did not return home on 1 April this year after he went to submit a CV for a job application at Rosslyn.
A month after he went missing, his mother told Rekord that she had opened a missing person’s case at the Terminus police station in Block B on 2 April.
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“The police only came to my house on 24 April to take statements and to get a photo of Mpendulo. I have been to the station to follow up on the case. No one is updating me on what is happening,” Sambo told Rekord at the time.
Three months later, Sambo finally received news about her missing son when the Akasia police visited the family on 4 July to inform them of his death.
A day after Mpendulo had left home, he was involved in a hit-and-run accident and died on the scene.
“My son was found by Sergeant Rufas Baloyi, who works at Akasia police station. He tried calling local stations, with no luck.”
“When he tried to reach Terminus police station where I opened the docket of a missing person, they did not pick up the phones,” said Sambo.
“The Akasia police took Mpendulo’s fingerprints to Bloemfontein to check for his identity. It took them time to get the results. He was unknown for full three months,” said the devastated mother.
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She accused the Terminus police of neglecting her family and not keeping them up to speed with the investigations.
“Sometimes if I called, they would tell me that the person who is in charge of the case is on leave that I should wait for him to come back. By that time, I was worried sick about my son’s whereabouts but they told me to wait.”
Sambo said the whole ordeal has not only caused her emotional pain; she has also had to seek medical help.
“This has traumatised me to a point where I ended up not eating and almost had a stroke.”
She said after the Akasia police received the fingerprints results, they were able to track Mpendulo’s family through his physical address.
“I was called to identify his body, but I could not do it. I sent my sister to identify,” said Sambo.
“I went to Ga-Rankuwa pathology to identify him,” Mpendulo’s aunt, Elizabeth Mthimunye, told Rekord.
“When I got there, it was him. His head was badly injured,” said Mthimunye.
She said the family was only now coming to terms with what had happened.
“We are traumatised. His death started kicking in last night; I could not sleep the whole night. He was a respectful, committed and responsible young man,” said Mthimunye.
“We would like to thank those who did not give up on us and tried to help us to look for Mpendulo. They were with us through thick and thin; it really meant a lot to us,” she added.
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The family said they were planning to open a case of murder at Akasia Police station after Mpendulo’s funeral.
Terminus police spokesperson Captain Reineth Motlana said that there would be a full investigation into the way the case had been handled, adding that “we will ask the person who was in charge of the case if it is true that he or she did not give feedback to the family”.
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