South African singer, Zahara Mkutukana’s niece Anelisa Mathebe has returned home on Tuesday after she’s been missing for two weeks.
On Tuesday MGOSI.co.za ran a story that Zahara was pleading with fans to help find her missing niece, Anelisa Mathebe.
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“My niece, she’s being (been) missing for 2 weeks, please when you see her please call this number 0656154871/ 0827472447 (my number),” wrote Zahara.
Zahara was not specific about the whereabouts of her niece, she didn’t include her name, clothes she was last seen wearing and or location she was last seen at.
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According to reports Anelisa Mathebe disappeared after attending a Motsepe Foundation event in East London earlier this month.
Friends and family have been searching for her and after Zahara shared her picture on her social media pages on Tuesday, fans joined the search and she was located in Southernwood, East London.
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Sowetan reports that Zahara’s sister, Bandezwa Mkutukana said that Anelilsa Mathebe returned home on Tuesday, hours after Zahara’s plea.
“She returned and we are very happy. We opened a case with the police and she has been returned. Her phone was taken, that is why no-one could get hold of her, but she is safe and home,” said Bandezwa as quoted by the paper.
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Zahara said the family had prayed for her safe return.
She said Anelisa had called the family before her return, but they were anxious because the call had come from a strange number.
“I am just worried because so many people go missing in this country. For us to be honoring 16 Days of Activism, and for a family member to be missing during this time, was traumatic. We really need to work together to make SA safer for women,” the singer said.
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Obviously things were tense for the family at this time as South Africa commemorates 16 days of activism in commemoration of victims’ gender-based violence and shines the spotlight on the scourge of femicide and child abuse.
The rate of murder, sexual offenses and assault has risen in South Africa.
Murder of women and children in 2018/19 totals to 2,771 women murdered in South Africa – down from 2,930 in 2017/18. This means a woman is murdered every three hours. A total of 1,014 children were murdered.
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According to Stats SA sexual offenses is a broad crime category that includes rape, compelled rape, sexual assault, incest, bestiality, sexual grooming of children and statutory rape.
According to stats, the number of reported sexual offenses increased to 52,420 in 2018/19 from 50,108 in 2017/2018. Most of these were cases of rape.
The sexual offenses crime rate in South Africa increased from 88.3 per 100,000 in 2017/18 to 90.9 in the 2018/19 period.
| Total sexual offenses recorded in South Africa in 2018/19 – Source SAPS | |
| Crime | Number |
| Rape | 41,583 |
| Sexual assault | 7,437 |
| Attempted sexual offenses | 2,146 |
| Contact sexual offenses | 1,254 |
| Total | 52,420 |
MGOSI.co.za says as much as Anelisa Mathebe’s phone was taken, she should have done what she did from day one, call from a “strange” number and alert her family about her whereabouts. She didn’t have to put the family in such a panic mode and only call after Zahara put her picture on social media pleading for her return.
MGOSI.co.za