Staff Writer
|||Staff Writer
A nine-year-old girl from the Samora Machel informal settlement at Nyanga who went missing last week, has been found safe and sound.
Yamkela Mtini, pictured, was found in the Kosovo area staying at a friend’s house, police liaison officer Captain FC van Wyk said today.
The child was found after a lengthy and intensive search by police, Nyanga Community Police Forum members and other volunteers.
“The child was found unharmed on Saturday evening and returned to her family,” Van Wyk said this morning. “She had been staying with a friend.”
Yamkela disappeared on Tuesday last week. She was last seen playing outside her home in Samora Machel while her mother, Nomaseni, was at work.
Police questioned friends and neighbours who saw her before she disappeared, but as the search continued, fears for her safety grew.
On Friday Yamkela’s distraught mother said her daughter did not know Cape Town.
“My daughter only moved to Cape Town from the Eastern Cape last year and she is still unfamiliar with the city. There is no family in the area where she could have gone. We truly don’t know what to think, but my husband and I are suffering immensely.”
Mtini said the only irregularity at their house was that the DStv was disconnected and the card in the decoder was missing. Mtini said Yamkela may have disconnected it accidentally and run away because she was afraid of getting into trouble.
Martin Sandile of Nyanga’s Community Policing Forum said 30 volunteers had been mobilised to support police in the search.
Dessie Rechner of the Pink Ladies, an organisation that helps to search for missing people, last week produced a flyer to be distributed.