DNA links man to two-year-old rape, murder case

AN EASTERN Cape man was due to appear in the Gqeberha Magistrate’s Court yesterday on charges of raping and murdering a five-year-old girl two years ago.

The 24-year-old has been implicated in the murder and rape of Chantelle Makwena at their home in Withoogte in Rocklands, said police spokesperson Priscilla Naidu.

On August 2, 2019, Chantelle’s mother, Veronica Makwena, 23, and her 34-year-old sister left their children at their home with the alleged suspect, his girlfriend and the girlfriend’s brother, to visit a friend. When the two women returned at 10pm, they found the front door opened and neither of the adults there, Naidu said. Chantelle was not in her bed and when Makwena went to the neighbour’s house to check, she was not there either.

Makwena then thought her daughter had perhaps gone to her father’s home on another farm and decided to look for her there the next morning. The child was, however, not there.

An intensive search for the girl ensued, and her father, Justine Manele, 29, later found his daughter’s badly battered and bruised body in a toilet near the Withoogte home. She was half naked and had sustained serious injuries to her head and face.

The same day, the community caught the suspect and assaulted him, before police managed to take him away for his safety, although he had not been charged at the time.

His DNA was, however, collected and sent for analysis. At the weekend, police received the forensic report linking him to the murder and rape of the child. He was arrested immediately.