Daily Sun (June 20 2013) - A 13-YEAR-OLD schoolgirl has been rescued from a gang of armed kidnappers by a quick-witted SunGirl! Over a dramatic eight hours, reporter Tebogo Thamage tracked down the girl by cellphone after getting a frantic call from the girl's mother. YOU'RE MY LAST HOPE, THE MOTHER CRIED TO TEBOGO!
Yesterday the teenaged Bongi - not her real name, as neither she nor her family can be identified - was back home with her mother after an ordeal in which she was kept in a dark room and given no food or water. By keeping in touch with her by phone, the SunGirl was able to find out her location.
Bongi was eventually dumped in the veld, in the cold night without shoes or warm clothing, where Tebogo found her.
This is SunGirl Tebogo's story . . .
WHEN I received the phone call on Tuesday, it sent chills down my spine. The frantic 32-year-old mother in Mmakau, North West, said her daughter Bongi went missing on Monday at about 5pm and the police were too slow in helping her. She said I was her last hope of finding her daughter alive. When I drove to the family home, Bongi's mother told me Bongi's cellphone was still on, but nobody was talking at the other end.
I urgently called a friend to have the cellphone tracked and at 7pm that day, it was found to be somewhere between Ga-Rankuwa and Mmakau, about 20km from Bongi's home. I kept calling the cellphone but all I heard was clicking that sounded like someone playing with a gun.