Missing siblings found

By Jason Warner

The brother and sister pair who went missing from a Laingsburg petrol station last Friday have been found safe in the Western Cape after boarding another taxi bound for the Eastern Cape.

Six-year-old Okuhle Maqhubela and her younger brother, three-year-old Mabaxole Maqhubela, were on Thursday found in Gugulethu, where they had been staying with a relative of a taxi driver.

The siblings were on their way from East London to Kosovo, Philippi where they were to meet their mother Nomsa Maqhubela on her 29th birthday.

They had been sent to live with Maqhubela's aunt in Mooiplaas, East London, as Nomsa feared for their safety in the city.

At a stopover at the Laingsburg petrol station the children had left the Toyota Quantum taxi with other passengers to use the restroom.

After returning, the passengers noticed the two were missing.

Laingsburg police spokesperson Lindikhaya Mkhontwana said they made a "breakthrough" after members of the public provided police with accurate information.

Mkhontwana said the children were found at the Stork Road Bus Terminus with the driver and the owner of another Toyota Quantum taxi.

He said it was thought the children had boarded another taxi after not being able to find theirs.
"The taxi drove with them to Mthatha in the Eastern Cape on Friday and came back with the same taxi to Cape Town."

Mkhontwana said the driver then contacted the taxi owner and told him of the situation.

"They kept the children under the care of the taxi owner's sister at Tambo Village in Gugulethu."

This breaking news article was supplied exclusively to www.iol.co.za by the news desk at our sister publication, The Cape Times.

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