THE mother of a 13-year-old Bryanston Primary schoolgirl who went missing last Thursday has made a passionate plea to the public to help find the girl.

"I am losing it. I have slept very little since she disappeared. I am pleading, I beg those who know where she is to contact me. I plead for her safe return," Agnes Maphoroma said yesterday.

Her daughter Maria, a Grade 5 pupil, was last seen on Thursday morning with a friend at a petrol station close to the school.

The friend, Thabiso Mkhize, was found a day later and has undergone a medical examination.

Maphoroma said for the past four nights she had tossed and turned trying to find answers to her plight.

"I cry myself to sleep. I just fail to stay normal," she said.

She revealed it was not the first time that her daughter went missing for days. The same happened in June.

She was found a month later after being spotted in the street in Hammanskraal.

Maphoroma, a domestic worker, also said she feared the worst as days pass without any information about her daughter.

"It hurts more at night when I have to sleep. I'm pleading to everyone to help me find her.

"I cannot sleep at night. I think of her all the time. I love her," she sobbed.

The deeply traumatised Maphoroma, who struggled to stand still, said she received the dreaded call about her daughter's disappearance minutes after she dropped her off at school on Thursday.

She said she did not know what her daughter was doing at the petrol station.

"She is not a problem child. She is very friendly with other children," Maphoroma said.

"When she came back from Hammanskraal it was like she was hurt and it looked like she had been given drugs."

Police spokesperson inspector Moses Maphakela said the police were following every lead from witnesses.