New abduction drama unfolds

Mob action after children vanish overnight The bizarre abduction of three small children in Kwazakhele culminated yesterday in a mob of about 100 angry residents attacking a 30-year-old woman on the streets before she was rescued by police. Fuelled by the rape and murder of seven-year- old Sonia Payi – and the discovery of her body earlier this week – angry residents of Kwazakhele, where the three siblings were lured away, said they feared the woman’s intention was to take the children to Durban where they would be sold. The children, aged 5, 7 and 8, were lured from their Tubali Street home at about 4pm on Wednesday after the suspect allegedly asked them to help her fetch clothes from the house where she was staying. Tensions have been high in the area following Sonia’s abduction last Saturday, with residents fearful for their children’s safety. The siblings were abducted less than two kilometres from the shop near where Sonia was kidnapped. The sibling’s grandmother, who was taking care of the children at the time of their disappearance, said it was at about 4pm when a group of children who had been playing with her grandchildren returned to the house alone. She said the children often played outside in the afternoons. “At about 6pm I felt uneasy and started panicking,” the grandmother said. The children’s mother was working night shift at Livingstone Hospital where she is a cleaner, when she received a call from the police about her missing children. The mother said her eldest child had told her the woman had been playing ball with them before she asked them to accompany her to fetch some clothes. “She told me the woman took them to a house in Mahambehlala Street where they spent the night on a mattress in the living room. She told them she would take them to Durban.