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'Simba' the lion cub's circle of life on the Flats

Staff Reporter|Published
LAGBOL: Witty mense created a host of memes about the lion cub

The family of killer Najwa Dirk has now also been dragged into the mystery of the lion cub found in Athlone last week.

Najwa’s son, Suleiman Effendi, has been pictured holding the cub police had removed from a house in Lawrence Road, Athlone on Wednesday.

Najwa is serving a 28-year prison sentence for murdering her musical theatre legend husband Taliep Petersen.

Police, who had searched various addresses before finding the cub, said the animal had been transported to Cape Town from Thabazimbi in Limpopo and is valued at around R50 000.

Sulaiman is pictured holding the leeutjie while mimicking a scene from Disney’s The Lion King movie.

The picture was posted on the Instagram account of his girlfriend, beauty blogger Qaanita Orrie.

Najwa Dirk’s son Suleiman Effendi with the cub. 

Orrie’s Twitter account, with more than 4000 followers, remains active with the last tweet posted on Wednesday, but her Instagram account, @qaanita_xx, with more than 77 000 followers, seems to have been deleted.

%%%twitter https://twitter.com/qaanitaorrie?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@qaanitaorrieis everything orrite by die huis? pic.twitter.com/4ysqu3skRr

— DK (@Sircula)

There is also a video of a man holding the cub in the air and he can be heard saying, “I give you Simba, the king of the jungle”, as The Lion King theme song, Circle of Life plays in the background. It is not clear if the man in the video is also Suleiman.

In yet another video, the cub is seen running between cars in someone’s yard while a man calls it.

Police spokesperson, Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana, said three people aged between 28 and 30, were taken in for questioning last week but they have since been released.

“No one has been charged yet. This office cannot divulge more information in an ongoing investigation,” she said yesterday.

Suleiman was not the only one pictured with a small lion after pictures of alleged underworld kingpin, Nafiz Modack, holding a cub also circulated on social media last week.

Modack with a cub. Picture: Facebook

Modack said his picture was taken on a lion farm.

Meanwhile, memes have been abounding following the rescue of the lion cub in Athlone.

One person tweeted: “A whole Lion cub in Athlone, I honestly can’t stop laughing. was he gonna keep it in the yard with the pittys? One roar in the morning and the whole southern Suburbs is awake, Ayj I’m crying. (sic)”

%%%twitter https://twitter.com/ginofernandezsa?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ginofernandezsa pic.twitter.com/QC9c0s95EN

— Yaaseen Barnes (@Ya_a_seen_Him)

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