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Five families in Dinokana village, near Zeerust in the North West, are waiting with baited breath for the DNA results of remains found by police on a mountain used as an initiation school. This comes after the families reported cases of missing persons in December.
The parents say the police let them down by not conducting a thorough search for their missing children, using resources such as sniffer dogs and an aeroplane for an aerial survey of the mountains used for bogus initiation schools in their area, after they received a tip-off that their children were being taken to initiation schools.
The parents and the community put money together and hired a drone and lodged a search themselves. They made a gruesome discovery of human remains and alerted the police.
This is what they had to say.
“Firstly, we asked the police to help us with sniffing dogs, horses, or an aeroplane but they failed us. As a community, we ended up putting money together to hire a drone. The drone only worked for 15- 30 minutes then the owner told me the batteries needed to be charged. When he had to come again next time, he charges us money again,” claims one parent.
“The Lehurutshe police station failed us, they only started making efforts when we contacted a brigadier in Mahikeng. That’s only when they started making an effort. I then called the police in Potchefstroom. It was already too late when they came. We had already discovered the children’s remains,” laments another.
