/ 20 August 2004

Boy’s head found in fridge after ‘ritual’

Police were preparing on Friday to exhume the body of a six-year-old boy whose head was found in a man’s refrigerator at Ntunda Trust near Tonga, Mpumalanga, on Thursday.

Police spokesperson Inspector Leonard Hlathi said a 32-year-old man had been arrested and was going to show police where the boy’s body was buried.

The child, missing since August 9, was last seen in the suspect’s company.

On Thursday members of the public went to the suspect’s house where his brother showed them the child’s head in the refrigerator.

Hlathi said police were preparing to exhume the child’s body from a sugar cane field.

The man alleges that he was instructed by a spirit to commit the murder ”for church rituals”.

He is being held at the Tonga police station and will appear in the Tonga Magistrate’s Court on Monday. — Sapa