Hunt for teen ‘killer’: Suspect’s sister wants him locked up for rape, murder

A Khayelitsha mom said she wants her brother, who is accused of raping and killing a young girl inside her home, to be locked up for life.

The 39-year-old woman shared how Thimna Kuze, 13, was suffocated in her home in Taiwan, Site C on March 24.

The incident occurred while she was in the Eastern Cape attending her granny’s funeral.

Thimna was a Grade 7 learner at Lantana Primary in Mitchells Plain.

Speaking to the Weekend Argus, the mom said Thimna and another teen were invited to a sleepover by her twins, aged 14, while she was away.

“My brother didn’t come with us to the Eastern Cape.

“I trusted he would look after my children but my twin daughters told me that he said he was going to be in Philippi for the weekend and that is why they wanted Thimna to sleep over.”

The distraught woman explained when the girls arrived at her home, the suspect “forced them to drink the bottle of brandy and (smoke) a hookah pipe.”

“They drank as they watched TV and they put a mattress in the lounge.

“Thimna then fell asleep and they put a blanket over her and they left her there and went to sleep in the bedroom.”

She says around 3am one of the teens woke up and found she had been allegedly raped.

“Her panties and pants were pulled down, she woke the others and they also found that one of my daughters was also half-naked and the second one’s pants were off but she was still wearing her underwear,” says the mom.

“They then went to check on Thimna and they found her on the floor next to the mattress and my brother was sitting next to her.

“They tried to wake her up but her body was not moving.

“They noticed blood in her nose, and they decided to carry her to my bed. They thought she got a cold from sleeping on the tiles and my brother helped them.”

She said the group called her neighbour who felt Thimna’s pulse and confirmed she was dead.

“She called community members, who interrogated him but he denied everything, they informed Thimna’s family and the police.”

She said she found out about the murder from a neighbour who called her and when she arrived in Cape Town, her brother had already fled the area.

“We decided to put the story on Facebook and we were informed that he is in the Philippi area.

“I don’t know what possessed him to do this to someone’s child, I want the court to give him a life sentence for what he did.”

Thimna’s ouma Agnes Kuze, 75, said after they were informed of her death, she sat next to the suspect but didn’t think he was the killer.

“He was very casual, neatly dressed. Once, we found out, my daughter attacked him out of anger and the police threatened to arrest her if she didn’t stop.

“Minutes later after we left, the police set him free and that is how he managed to flee the area.”

Police spokesperson FC van Wyk says no arrests have been made yet.

“The inquest will be changed to a murder investigation. Khayelitsha detectives and Khayelitsha FCS Unit are investigating the rape allegations too.”

Weekend Argus