Sibongile Mashaba

Sibongile Mashaba

The community of Mofolo North in Soweto is outraged over the abduction and brutal rape of a six-year-old girl.

The child cannot be named to protect her. Angry residents said the girl's molester did not deserve to live and some wanted to take the law into their hands.

The Grade 1 pupil was abducted outside her home on Sunday. Her family - her mother and two sisters - live in a back room.

The molester lured the child away from her playmates under the pretext her mother had sent him to take her to a doctor.

He apparently took the child to an undisclosed place where she was repeatedly raped over two days.

At about 3am on Tuesday, the molester dropped the child off at the gate of her home.

Jabulani police spokesman Inspector Kay Makhubela said police were yet to get a statement from the child about what had happened.

Makhubela said no arrests had yet been made.

Speaking to Sowetan on Wednesday, neighbours said the man did not deserve to live.

"What he did is unforgettable and unforgivable. He deserves to die," said Andrina Khubeka.

Maria Gongota said she saw the child near her home at about 6pm on Sunday.

"I regret why I didn't tell her to go inside. I was shocked when her mother told me she could not find her. I am hurt about what happened to that child," Gongota said.

During her first assessment at Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital on Tuesday, doctors found that she had been seriously injured. She went for another assessment on Wednesday.

The mother said: "She will undergo an operation in November. Doctors could not immediately operate on her because the injuries were fresh."