It’s a hot Sunday afternoon in bustling Khayelitsha.
On the streets people seem happy, but in a shack in YBC section in Khayelitsha, a mother is crying.
She is living through her worst nightmare after her daughter Akhona Mthungathwa, 19, suddenly vanished.
Bulelwa Mthungathwa said they are terrified she may have met someone who will hurt her.
She called Vukani to tell her story and tearfully pleaded with anyone who has information about her daughter’s whereabouts to come forward.
Her daughter, fondly known as Nopinki, has been missing for more than a month now. Her mother last saw her on Saturday September 7.
Nopinki is a Grade 10 pupil at Aloe High School in Mitchell’s Plain, but her mother’s worry is not school. It’s her life.
“We always hear on the news how young girls die. We know how the country is at war with women. I don’t sleep thinking of how she might be. I ask myself if she is still alive or dead. Whoever has her and knows where she is must please bring her back. Her missing pains me on a daily basis,” she said.
Ms Mthungathwa said while Akhona is 19 and also disappeared in December last came and came back later, she cannot just rule out the possibility of foul play in her daughter’s disappearance this time around.
She said she reported the matter to the police but was not given a case number.
“I reported her missing because I needed help from the police. But they never seemed interested. They later told me to open a case, but I have no case number until now,” she said.
She hopes with the help of police and the community, she can embrace her daughter once again.
Khayelitsha police spokesman Constable Arthur West, said the mother should open a case and he would follow up as to who helped her and why that person had not given her a case number.”
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