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Festive season of grief for North West family: body of girl, 15, found dumped in veld

Fifteen-year-old Zanele Biyo's body was found dumped in the veld on Sunday.

he man accused of killing her was out on bail after he was arrested and charged with kidnapping Zanele and her friend, and keeping them in his house in Rustenburg, North West, from December 20 to 24, where he allegedly raped them.

He was arrested shortly after the incident, charged with two counts of rape and released on bail.

The man was arrested again on January 2 for Zanele’s murder, after she went missing on December 31.

Her body was found dumped in the veld on Sunday.

The 40-year-old, who cannot be named because he has not yet pleaded, appeared in the Bafokeng magistrate’s court on Tuesday on charges of murder and kidnapping.

His matter was postponed to March 2 for further investigations.

The girl’s mother, Evelyn Biyo, said she regretted allowing her daughter to leave home on New Year’s Eve.

“I told her not to go because she knew that she was kidnapped on December 20 and we found her only on Christmas Eve. So I was not comfortable with her leaving, but I also knew that it would not be fair to deprive her of a little bit of fun because she was going through trauma,” Biyo said.

She said her anxiety was compounded when she could not reach her daughter on her cellphone and when she failed to return home on January 1.

“I went to the police station and told them that Zanele was missing again,” Biyo said.

The suspect was arrested a few days later.

“I was heartbroken because I knew I should not have allowed her to leave the house,” said the mother.

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She described her daughter as a fun-loving but easily distracted person.

“I don’t want to lie, my daughter liked having fun. Often she neglected her studies because of that and did not perform well. She was meant to start grade 10 next week, but now she’s gone,” she said.