A 21-year-old Wits student has been missing for four days and her family is worried about her safety.

Thami Boipelo Mashiane, a third year international relations student,  has not been seen since Saturday when she was visiting friends in Joubert Park, Johannesburg.

Mashiane’s aunt Sharon, 53, said the past few days have been daunting for the family.

“We are worried about her health as she was diagnosed with depression in December and placed on medication. She hasn’t taken her medication ever since she went missing,” she said.

She said Mashiane left home on Friday to finalise her registration and she sent a message saying she will spend the weekend with her friends.

“According to her friend, on Saturday evening she went to buy a cigarette and she never came back again. Her phone has been off since then. It was only on Monday when the friends decided to call us to ask if she was back at home because they haven’t seen her since. We started panicking, we went to the police station to open a case of a missing person. We have looked for her in the streets of Johannesburg with no luck,” she said.

Sharon said the family was comforted by people saying they had seen Mashiane in Hillbrow but she was not in a good condition.

“All we want as the family is to have our daughter back at home. She does not deserve this at all. We are worried that her free-spirited nature could have caused problems for her. She is very trusting and finds it easy to make friends; maybe someone out there used that to their advantage,” she said.

Mashiane's friend Karabo Maisela, 22, said she is scared for her friend. “We are getting different stories from people who said they saw her but no one comes with a concrete story about her whereabouts. We pray for her safe return,” she said.