By: Danielle L. Gwozdz
Impunity Watch News Reporter, Africa

PRETORIA, South Africa – The bodies of two toddlers, aged two and three, were found dumped in community toilets on Tuesday morning after they went missing on Saturday.

South African police are questioning three people over the deaths of the two toddlers who were cousins. The deaths have sparked violent protests and looting.

Residents accused police of failing to protect the girls who were discovered by local resident in Diepsloot township, north of Johannesburg.

The toddlers had disappeared Saturday night with an unknown man when their mothers went to a nearby spaza shop.

“It is not clear how the children were killed,” said police spokesperson Lungelo Dlamini. Unverified local media reports said they were strangled.

President Jacob Zuma has urged the violent protestors to not take the law into their own hands.

“We condemn these murders in the strongest possible terms. Whilst we appeal to the communities not to take the matters into their hands, we also want to urge them to work with law enforcement authorities to find the perpetrators and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law,” Zuma stated.

“These gruesome incidents of extreme torture and murder of our children do not belong to the society that we are continuously striving to build together,” South Africa’s Sowetan newspaper quoted Zuma as saying.

Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said three people had been taken in for questioning and that police were also searching for a fourth person, the South African Press Association reports.

Dlamini also stated that they were investigating a possible link between the murders and that of a five-year-old girl found dead in the same area in September.

“It is suspected that she was sexually violated and strangled. A suspect who was taken in for questioning relating to the murder was later released,” Lt-Col Dlamini said.

Diepsloot, which borders one of the country’s wealthiest gated estates, Dainfern, is among the most impoverished areas of Johannesburg.

Some parts of the township have no running water and residents share pit latrines or mobile toilets.

In a separate case, the bodies of two other children were found in a field in Katlehong township in East Rand, Guateng province.

The children, aged one and two, were found next to their mother, who had been critically injured, according to iAfrica.com.

Police Colonel Katlego Mogale said: “It appears as if they were dropped by the husband in an open place and then the husband drove away. They are all Mozambican nationals.”

The death of a young boy whose body, bearing marks of torture, was found in a field east of Johannesburg is also being investigated by police.

The murders have sparked paranoia and fury in the community.

One Diepsloot mother, Olorato Mokoena, says she no longer trusts men around her three-year-old daughter.

Community leader Lizzie Chauke said police had sealed a shack in which investigators had found evidence of what is believed to have been the girls’ murder.

“It was terrible. There was blood and flies everywhere. Police found their clothes, four blankets covered in blood, feces, and a ‘fake penis’ and crowbar. They had blood on them,” she said.

Childline director Joan van Niekerk said though the government had sufficient laws and policies to protect children with, the challenge was in implementing them.

For more information, please visit:

BBC News – South Africa suspects questioned after toddler murders – 16 October 2013
Yahoo! News – South Africa Toddlers Found Dead In Toilet – 16 October 2013
The Independent – Murder of two toddlers whose bodies were found in toilet sparks riots in South Africa – 16 October 2013
Times Live – ‘What would you do if it was your baby?’ – 16 October 2013
msn news – Toddler deaths shock South Africa – 16 October 2013
iAfrica.com – JZ ‘shocked’ by toddler murders – 16 October 2013