Man confesses to murder and rape of two Diepsloot toddlers

Last week, riots broke out in Diepsloot after the mutilated bodies of two toddlers were discovered in the shanty town north of Johannesburg.

Identified locally as cousins Yonelisa and Zandile Mali, the girls, aged just two and three, had been missing for three days when their bodies were found in a communal toilet cubicle in the early hours of last Tuesday morning.

They had been raped and strangled.

In a display of outrage, locals barricaded roads, threw stones at police and set fire to cars as they demanded authorities hand the suspects over to them. Angry protesters accused police of failing to protect their community and insisted they should be allowed to deal with the accused men themselves.

Diepsloot residents gathered outside the police building chanting and holding placards reading: “Stop killing and raping our children” before police managed to restore calm.

The girls were laid to rest at the family home last Saturday.

Now the key suspect has confessed to the crime. Prosecution spokesman Medupe Simasiku said that the man in his late 20s appeared in Pretoria Magistrate’s Court briefly on Monday on two counts each of kidnap, rape and murder.

Originally from Alexandra, it is thought police are also investigating additional charges against the man relating to earlier crimes in the Diepsloot area.

He will appear in court again on Thursday together with four suspected accomplices who have also been detained but have not confessed.

Women and Children’s Minister Lulu Xingwana said the men should receive the maximum sentence of life imprisonment and called on the local community to come forward and testify against those involved.

“For such heinous crimes we can’t take a chance and release these men on bail. To make sure our children are safe, we must make sure these people are kept in custody”, she said.

Diepsloot is one of the poorest areas of Johannesburg with a high rate of unemployment. Some parts of the township have no running water and competition for jobs often leads to friction between local residents and foreigners.

Following the violence sparked by the toddlers’ deaths, President Jacob Zuma released a statement urging residents not to take the law into their own hands.

“The gruesome incidents of extreme torture and murder of our children do not belong to the society that we are continuously striving to build together,” he declared.

“We condemn these murders in the strongest possible terms.”

In a separate incident in Diepsloot, just days after the toddlers’ bodies were discovered, a newborn baby boy was found dead in a stream.

Gauteng police have urged anyone with information about the boy’s mother to come forward after it emerged she is believed to have fled the area after dumping her son’s body.