AURELIA CHAPMAN
The Soweto family of a former ambassador to Brazil are desperately looking for a relative who went missing last week.
Tiny Sylvia Magadla, 58, the older sister of former ambassador Mbulelo Rakwena, went missing in Dobsonville on Thursday afternoon and has not been seen since. Her daughter Busi, 21, opened a missing person case at the Dobsonville police station the next day.
Rakwena said he and other relatives had visited hospitals and police stations to look for Magadla, with no success.
He said his sister went about her normal business on Thursday, saying goodbye to her husband and daughter as they left for work that morning.
“She’s a housewife, and after her husband and daughter go to work, she looks after her grandson and sees him off to preschool,” said Rakwena.
He said Magadla’s daughter always phoned her mother at around 9am to make sure that her two-year-old son was picked up by the preschool’s taxi. In the event of her mother not answering the phone, Busi would call at 4pm.
Rakwena said that on Thursday, his sister did not answer her cellphone. When Busi arrived home that afternoon, she found her two-year-old at a neighbour’s house.
“She said the taxi driver left him at the neighbour’s house because there was no answer at home,” said Rakwena, “and when my sister’s husband arrived home that night around 6pm, there was no one at home and her cellphone was still in the house.”
Rakwena said one of his other sisters saw Magadla in Dobsonville on Thursday, and they spoke briefly.
“She told our sister that she was going to catch a taxi to Johannesburg,” said Rakwena, “but she didn’t see Tiny get into the taxi. That was the last time anyone saw her.”
Rakwena said the police were investigating any leads. Anyone with information on Magadla should contact the police.
Rakwena was South African ambassador to Brazil from 1998 to 2004.
He currently works on the African Diaspora Programme.