This is despite murmurs in the Free State capital alleging the contrary. Police spokesperson, Ikobeng Hlubi, tells OFM News, local police are yet to make a breakthrough in the case and to apprehend a suspect for the schoolgirl’s rape and murder. Nthabiseng "Mingy" Makhoba, as she was affectionately known, was a grade 2 learner at Tebello Primary School in Rocklands at the time of her death. She was last seen in the company of a friend and a fellow learner after school on Monday, March 4. Two days later, her body was discovered by Leabua Tjemolane and a group of his friends in an open field facing the Caleb Motshabi informal settlement casually named 'Dinaweng’. The deceased resided in the Ipopeng township at the time of her death.

Makhoba was laid to rest in a funeral service that took place at the Kagisanong Hall in the Free State capital on Friday, March 15. It was revealed, at the funeral service, that the primary schoolgirl would have turned eight years old on the same day that she was buried.

In the wake of a string of rape cases, where the victims were women and minors as young as four years old in the province, Policy Development and Advocacy Fellow at the Sonke Gender Justice, Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane told OFM News in an interview, patriarchy and misogyny are at the core of violence against women and children. Mokgorane says, in most cases, men use their economic, structural and financial power to have a hold on their victims and continue to rape them. He further says society has not yet created a conducive environment for rape victims to come forward and report cases.

OFM News