Sibongile Mashaba

Sibongile Mashaba

The mother of the little boy found in the veld with his genitals cut off says her baby is recovering quicker than expected.

Meisie Majola said her two-year-old was recovering well and could eat and talk.

Her son's attacker should not be allowed to live among humans, she said.

The toddler disappeared last Thursday from his home in Ebumnandini informal settlement in Tshepisong, West Rand. Community members stumbled on him later that day in the bushes of the nearby veld.

"The investigator tried to speak to the boy at the hospital, but he does not seem to know the perpetrator," said police spokesman Captain Nobantu Mtila-Dikolomela.

She said a nursery schoolteacher who saw the boy with an unknown man on the day he went missing could not identify the stranger.

The boy's life was saved when Snega Konyana rushed him to Leratong Hospital in his own car from the Kagiso police station as officers watched the child bleed because they "were not allowed to transport injured people".

Konyana found the boy sitting on a bench at the police station. He opened the boy's pants and was shocked to find that his genitals had been cut off.

Police spokesman Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said restrictions on officers were merely guidelines and that the officers should have used their discretion. Police would conduct an investigation and disciplinary steps would be taken if necessary.