Two brothers, 9 and 11, missing from Wepener since Thursday as police widen search to taxi routes

Two brothers from Bloemfontein have been missing from a relative’s house in Wepener since Thursday, and the Free State police search for them now runs along the R702 towards the city.

Lebohang Mosesi, 9, and his brother Teboho Mosesi, 11, live at Phomolong Informal Settlement in Bloemfontein. As IOL reported on 19 September, they were visiting relatives in Shipman Street, Wepener, with their elder sister when they left the house on Thursday, 17 September.

The family noticed afterwards that the boys’ clothes were missing from the house. That detail is the one the search has turned on. It suggests the brothers packed before they left, and it sent the family looking first at whether the two had tried to travel to Vanstadensrus or back home to Bloemfontein on their own.

What the taxi drivers saw

The search was extended to the local taxi association, which is what happens in the Free State when a child goes missing on a route between towns. Taxis are the transport most people in Wepener use, and drivers know the road, the stops and the faces.

One driver told the family that two boys had been seen walking along the R702 in the direction of Bloemfontein. The R702 is the road that runs from Wepener through the eastern Free State towards the city, and a walk along it is not a short one. Police have not said whether they have confirmed the sighting or established how far the boys may have travelled.

Wepener sits close to the Lesotho border, roughly 130 kilometres south east of Bloemfontein, and the R702 carries both local traffic and long distance taxis along that corridor. A child on foot on that road at night is exposed to traffic, to weather and to anyone who means them harm. That is the practical reason the taxi association was brought in early, and it is why the police appeal is aimed at drivers and passengers rather than at the town alone.

What the boys were wearing

According to the police, Teboho was wearing blue shorts, a pink T-shirt and sandals when he left the house. Lebohang was wearing tracksuit pants, a red jersey and black takkies.

Police in Wepener are asking anyone who has seen the brothers, or who knows where they are, to come forward. The investigating officer is Warrant Officer Corra Nel, who can be reached on 079 502 3774. Information can also be given at any police station or through the SAPS Crime Stop number on 08600 10111.

The South African Police Service maintains a missing persons database on its website and issues public appeals in these cases as a matter of routine. The appeal matters more than it looks. In a missing child case the first days carry most of the value, and a sighting reported late is a sighting lost.

What the family and the search need now

A child who has walked off with a bag of clothes is not the same case as a child taken. The family’s own first instinct, that the boys may have tried to get back to Bloemfontein by themselves, is the most likely reading of the evidence so far, and it is the one the police are working.

That makes the appeal to the public specific. Anyone who travelled the R702 between Wepener and Bloemfontein on Thursday or Friday, by taxi, by car or by truck, may have seen two boys on the roadside without knowing a search was on. Anyone in Phomolong who has seen the brothers since Thursday should say so at once.

The family is in Wepener. The boys’ home is in Bloemfontein. The distance between those two points is where this search is running, and the police have asked anyone with information to call Warrant Officer Nel on 079 502 3774 or Crime Stop on 08600 10111.

Source: IOL, Missing boys in Bloemfontein: Police seek help to find brothers aged nine and 11