Community asks suspect to reveal accomplices in Pienaar child murders

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Community members in kaDaantjie in Pienaar outside Mbombela, Mpumalanga, are calling on the 18-year-old suspect linked to the murder of two children in the area to reveal the people he was working with.

The community members are adamant that the suspect did not commit the murders of both six-year-old Junior Mabandla and three-year-old Peaceful Khoza alone.

The community members held a memorial service to remember the two children whose bodies were exhumed last week.

Community members were out in their numbers to support both the Mabandla and Khoza families. Despite the arrest of the suspected killer, the community still feels that there are still more people behind these murders.

“Since we’ve found the young boy, the 18-year-old boy doing whatever that he did. We need a culprit. He must at least show us who is the culprit,” a community member says.

“We feel very bad, and we can’t even sleep at night. We are now even scared to allow our kids to go play outside due to the situation we saw,” another community member explains.

Junior Mabandla’s uncle, Mbongeni Sifunda says it will take them forever to forget what had happened to their child.

“It feels like the family just lost everything because we were expecting so much from that child. Now there’s nothing to expect,”

It is alleged that the suspect was a friend of Peaceful Khoza’s father. Peaceful’s aunt Khethiwe Khoza says they never thought someone so close would cause them such a pain.

“We are saddened by what Welcome did to us. We took him as a brother. We would give him food when he asked for it. Even money to buy cigarettes. We are very saddened by his actions,” says Khoza.

The children will be laid to rest on Tuesday.