A massive search for three missing Keiskammahoek boys was called off at noon yesterday when they were found swimming and sunbathing at a river.
The boys, all cousins from the same family, were last seen on Tuesday afternoon by their 71-year-old grandmother and guardian, Pamela Booi, in their Tshoxa location home.
They are aged seven and nine.
The search was sparked by the disappearance of another boy, a two-year-old , from the area, who went missing more than a week ago from his father’s house. The toddler has not yet been found.
When her three grandsons failed to return home on Tuesday evening, Booi immediately alerted police who began searching for them in nearby homes of friends and relatives.
At dawn yesterday Keiskammahoek Police Station commander Colonel Nonceba Nika gathered two-thirds of her police force for the search while the King William’s Town police cluster sent one of their best K9 search and rescue officers, Sergeant Frans Makgoga, to assist.
Booi said she also woke up yesterday and began searching for them.
Word of the missing boys reached town causing a seven-year-old boy to approach police with information on their whereabouts. He told police he had seen them swimming in a river 4km from where they were searching.
Police rushed to the scene and found the boys drying in the sun after a swim.
It turned out they had spent the night at the home of the father of the seven-year-old boy in Bumbane location. They were then loaded onto the back of a bakkie and taken home. Once in the house, Colonel Nika said to the boys’ teary grandmother: “Here are your children. We have found them and brought them back to you safely.”
In her reply Booi said: “I have heard people say you as police do not do your work but today I have to say the people are wrong because you have done a wonderful job.”
Nika said the investigation into the disappearance of two-year-old Bukhobenkosi Rasi was still ongoing. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
Missing children found – swimming in river
The boys, all cousins from the same family, were last seen on Tuesday afternoon by their 71-year-old grandmother and guardian, Pamela Booi, in their Tshoxa location home.
They are aged seven and nine.
The search was sparked by the disappearance of another boy, a two-year-old , from the area, who went missing more than a week ago from his father’s house. The toddler has not yet been found.
When her three grandsons failed to return home on Tuesday evening, Booi immediately alerted police who began searching for them in nearby homes of friends and relatives.
At dawn yesterday Keiskammahoek Police Station commander Colonel Nonceba Nika gathered two-thirds of her police force for the search while the King William’s Town police cluster sent one of their best K9 search and rescue officers, Sergeant Frans Makgoga, to assist.
Booi said she also woke up yesterday and began searching for them.
Word of the missing boys reached town causing a seven-year-old boy to approach police with information on their whereabouts. He told police he had seen them swimming in a river 4km from where they were searching.
Police rushed to the scene and found the boys drying in the sun after a swim.
It turned out they had spent the night at the home of the father of the seven-year-old boy in Bumbane location. They were then loaded onto the back of a bakkie and taken home. Once in the house, Colonel Nika said to the boys’ teary grandmother: “Here are your children. We have found them and brought them back to you safely.”
In her reply Booi said: “I have heard people say you as police do not do your work but today I have to say the people are wrong because you have done a wonderful job.”
Nika said the investigation into the disappearance of two-year-old Bukhobenkosi Rasi was still ongoing. — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
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