Scrolling through countless pictures on the Facebook page Missing Persons South Africa, I find myself stopping at the shy smile of Kateko (14), “last seen in Roodepoort on 20 October”; the confident gaze of Inga from Durban (22), pretty face framed in an Afro, who “boarded a taxi to her place of employment in uMhlanga on 27 October, but cannot be located since”; and the shining eyes of Amu (16), laughing as she tosses back her long dreads, “last seen at the entrance of Bulithando Park, KwaThema, on 24 November, wearing a black T-shirt, jeans and pink sneakers”.
What the stats say
Statistics are hard to come by, but in the most recent, released by Police Minister Bheki Cele in 2020, 4 512 women were reported missing between April 2016 and 2019, with the numbers increasing each year. Of the women, about 80% were African, 10% coloured, 5% white and 1% Indian (the remainder were presumably “other”). Most of them were under 30, with a high incidence of 18-year-olds. During the same three-year period, 2 706 children went missing, mostly between the ages of 12 and 17, but some were toddlers and babies. Behind each of these cases lies a story, and family or friends left in limbo, not knowing where they are or if they are even alive; and if they are alive, what hell they may be going through. It’s an agony I understand, after my older son disappeared eight years ago – on 29 March 2016,
