He told his mom he heard voices telling him to kill his little sister ... so a 16-year-old boy allegedly tied his six-year-old sister to the rafters of their Tembisa home and let her choke to death.

It was like any Wednesday afternoon when the mother went to collect her daughter from crèche. But on April 22, she wasn't there.

Not too worried, the mother walked home assuming her son had forgotten to take his sister to crèche. But she was not prepared for what she found.

Still in her blue pyjamas, the little girl was hanging from a rope tied to the kitchen ceiling.

"I screamed! My whole body became paralysed," said the tearful mother.

"I didn't know what to do. It was only when my neighbour came into the house, and also started screaming, that I knew that my eyes weren't fooling me."

The boy, who had been watching TV in the lounge, and appeared dazed according to his mother, walked into the kitchen and asked what happened.

"After interrogating him for about 10 minutes he then confessed it was him who hanged her," said his mom.

"He said he heard voices directing him to do what he did. Even his strength, he said something had entered his body."

The mother has since moved back to Limpopo, where the little girl was buried yesterday.

The teen was arrested and released into his father's care .

He has, since the incident, been acting "strange", his father said.

"He will see social workers who will determine whether or not he is okay.

"As for me, the thought of losing two children is unthinkable.

"I want answers ... I am not sure how to react. It's painful, even more painful when I look at the boy."

Neighbours said they were shocked by the act.

"You hear stories about satanic groups in our townships, but in this case we're not sure if it is related. He never did anything out of the ordinary," said a neighbour.

When Sowetan visited the teen yesterday, he sat alone playing with stones.