- The mutilated body of a 15-month-old baby has been found.
- The baby has been missing since Friday.
- In a separate incident, a 15-year-old boy was hacked to death.
The mutilated body of a 15-month-old baby has been found in a forest in Magagadolo in the Zululand district in KwaZulu-Natal.
Ceza police opened a murder docket for further investigation.
"It is alleged that on 14 March at 18:45, a body of a 1-year-old child was found [in the] Magagadolo area with both eyes gouged out," Colonel Thembeka Mbele said on Tuesday.
She added that the child was reported missing last Friday.
"The child was last seen playing with other children. The mother only realised that the child was missing when she called the children into the house. The child's body was found in the forest adjacent to the family homestead," Social Development MEC Nonhlanhla Khoza said.
In a separate incident on 10 March, a 15-year-old boy was hacked to death in the Pepworthy/Kwasizwile area, in uThukela.
"It is alleged that on 10 March 2021 at 00:45, a 15-year-old boy was hacked with an unknown sharp object by [an] unknown suspect at Mathafeni farm. He sustained injuries to his body and was rushed to hospital where he died. The matter is still under investigation," said police spokesperson Captain Nqobile Gwala.
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Khoza said the assailants tortured the teen and killed him in front of his grandmother.
"He was badly beaten and left for dead in the family homestead. His attackers came into the homestead, demanding to see his uncle. When they couldn't find him they resorted to dragging the boy out and assaulted him," she alleged.
His "helpless grandmother collapsed and was helped by neighbours who descended on the homestead after the incident", Khoza added.
She said: "We are a nation that has lost ubuntu. To kill children like this indicates that the challenge we face as a society is huge. It is hard to believe that people can just snatch a little child to be killed like that. These heartless people have no place in our society," she said.
She called on communities to work with the police as they launched a manhunt to find the killers.
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