The parents and relatives of the missing Tirelo Modise, famously known as Mma Mhlongo, have started holding daily prayers at her house as they have given up hope of ever finding her.
Pain and sorrow prevails at the Mhlongo household in Block 8, where her friends and family have gathered to console each other and wait with bated breath for any information from the police as to her whereabouts.
Mma Mhlongo and her husband Petrus Mhlongo are well known as regular callers on Radio Botswana programs.
Mma Mhlongo reportedly left Botswana to visit her husband in Mozambique on December 22 and then mysteriously disappeared on the way. When she failed to show up on December 23 as expected, her husband reported the matter to the Botswana police.
Senior Superintendent Dipheko Motube of Botswana Police confirmed the reports that Ma Mhlongo never arrived in Mozambique.
The police immediately started investigations and opened a missing person file.
“We checked with Botswana border and they confirmed that Ma Mhlongo crossed the border to South Africa on the 22nd. The South African authorities also confirmed that she arrived in their country on the same day,” he said.
Motube further said they are working with both South African and Mozambican authorities to verify if Mma Mhlongo ever crossed into Mozambique.
“We have activated all channels through Interpol to get updates from SA, and it is updated every day,” said Motube.
Mma Mhlongo’s heartbroken mother could not speak to Sunday Standard save to say, “nna ga ke bue sepe, ke itlhobogile ba jele ngwanake, ke emetse setopo hela”, (I won’t say a thing, I have lost hope. People have killed my daughter and I am only waiting for her corpse).
Other relatives also revealed that there are allegations that she has been burnt to ashes in South Africa.
“How can the police continue to say that they are looking for a missing person when we hear rumours that she was burnt to ashes? Why don’t they just bring us the ashes so that we bury them?” said one distraught family member.