Toddler kidnapped, killed

2003-09-22 09:21

Debbie Sauer

Uitenhage - Mystery surrounds the abduction of a four-year-old from his nursery school, demands for a R30 000 ransom and then his body being found.

The police are investigating after the body of Makhumandile "Trompies" Bantom was found a few metres from Sarah Baartman's grave near Hankey on Saturday.

Somebody fetched the toddler from the school on September 12, but he never arrived back home.

Captain Gavin Baker of the police said the boy's body was found in thick bush after two men had been arrested on Friday and subsequently showed them the spot.

The men from KwaNobuhle apparently asked a youngster to take a letter to Hilda Swelanto, an employee of the Santa Hospital and Makhumandile's mother last Saturday.

They demanded a ransom for the release of her son and warned that if the police were told, her child would be killed.

Baker said: "It didn't look as if the child had been in captivity long, because the body was decomposed."

It's unclear how the child was murdered, but a post-mortem was due to be done on Monday or Tuesday.

Swelanto was grief-stricken when Die Burger visited her. Her older son, Mcebisi, says his mother sometimes thinks her baby is still alive.

"I don't quite know what to say. We feel lost."

Mcebisi says: "He would have turned five on Thursday and I was planning a party for him."

- Die Burger