Massive search for missing girl
16/10/2007 07:23  - (SA)  

Londiwe Nzimande was last seen in Durban. (Beeld)

'Frantic' mum looks for girl

Dries Liebenberg, Beeld

Durban - Leon Schuster and other celebrities have thrown their weight behind the biggest campaign to find missing children since the disappearance of seven-year-old Sheldean Human at the beginning of the year.

Ten-year-old Londiwe Nzimande has been missing for 13 days after leaving her aunt's house in Empangeni early on October 3. It appears she headed for her mother's house in Durban with R25 in her pocket.

Zehile Nzimande is beside herself with anguish about her youngest child. She takes taxis or walks to all the areas in Durban where her daughter has been before, and she's even using a loudspeaker, to ask people to help her.

Nizimande, a domestic worker, has also searched all the hospitals after a sangoma told her that Londiwe had been in a car accident.

'How can I eat?'

"I can't sleep, I can't eat. How can I eat? I must search for her. I don't know anymore what to do," Nzimande said on Monday.

Leon Schuster and Tammy-Anne Fortuin, model and presenter of KykNET'S culinary programme Roer! along with the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal, Patricia de Lille of the Independent Democrats and Dianne Kohler Barnard of the DA, are some of the celebrities involved in the campaign launched by Missing Children SA.

Pieter Boshoff, co-ordinator of Missing Children SA said : "We're concerned about her. The taxi route from Empangeni and the places where she was last seen, are dangerous."

It appeared that she arrived in Durban on the same day that she left her aunt's house, and asked for help to get a taxi to the Lindelani area, where her family lived.

People told police that they had seen her two days later at KwaSheleni, south of the city.

Missing Children SA, was also sending a private detective to search for leads at Empangeni.

Nzimande heard from one of her daughter's friends that Londiwe had said she wanted to return to Durban. She had been living at Empangeni since the beginning of the year.

"I can just think what unbelievable pain and heartache she (Nzimande) must be experiencing," said Schuster, himself a father of four.