Body of missing eMbalenhle toddler found in veld

The body of little Thingo Mahlangu (4) was found dumped in the veld late on the afternoon of May 2.

The toddler had been missing since April 17.

A man who was hunting with his dogs in the veld stumbled across the tiny body in the same area that had been searched a week before.

The eMbalenhle Police station commander, Colonel Maria Sibanyoni, led a search for the missing Thingo on April 26 together with the K9 Unit, taxi patrollers and community members.

A sniffer dog was used to search the veld and a nearby water stream, but it yielded no results. Houses in Ext 16 were also searched, but the little boy was nowhere to be found.

Thingo’s distraught grandmother, Albertina Mgentsu, was among the family members who joined the search that day. She told Ridge Times at the time the family was suffering and that she hoped to find him alive.

“I cannot sleep while my grandchild is missing. I wonder if he is eating or bathing wherever he is.”

During a previous interview, Mgentsu pleaded with whoever had taken the toddler, to return him to his family.

Mpumi Mahlangu, Thingo’s aunt, told Ridge Times on Friday that the hunter alerted the family about the child he had found.

“We rushed there to see if it was Thingo. We were able to identify Thingo by the clothes he was wearing,” said the aunt.

Mahlangu said the family was devastated by the loss of the little boy and that they had been hoping that he would come home alive.

Constable Busi Mthethwa, the eMbalenhle police spokesperson, said the police cannot yet conclude the body found in the veld is that of Thingo until DNA results confirm it.

Mthethwa did reveal the police had opened a murder investigation.

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