The hope of finding the body of the missing 17-year-old Hlulani Maswanganyi, the mother of a baby boy, is fading fast.

She and her one-month-old boy were allegedly abducted by a well-known Malamulele traffic official on 1 October last year. The police recently announced that the DNA results of the remains they had believed to be hers were negative. Since her disappearance, the family had hoped to find Hlulani’s body to bury her and get closure on the whole matter.

After her abduction, baby Timothy Xikahle Mbavala was found with the traffic cop, Masingita Chavani, who, together with the 22-year-old Steven Sithole, was charged with kidnapping and child stealing. Chavani allegedly took the baby as hers, after applying for leave at her place of work at Malamulele, stating that she was going to give birth.

Sithole has since confessed to killing the young woman near Mulonga in the Shigalo area in the presence of Chavani. When he was supposed to point out the scene near Mulonga where the alleged killing had taken place, the police found blood stains, but there was no body. He later took the police to an area near Nandoni Dam where they and family members combed the area, but to no avail.

Then they were happy when a fisherman later found some remains after a body was apparently set alight with petrol. The body was decomposed and charred, with only part of the head found at the scene. Some parts of some burnt clothes could be identified. Hlulani’s father, Elvis Maswanganyi, said he believed the charred remains were those of his daughter.

Thohoyandou police spokesperson Major Mashudu Malelo, in whose area the remains were found, confirmed the remains were not those of Hlulani. "We are now investigating whom the remains found at Nandoni belong to. The results have proven that the remains are of a male person,” he said.

Meanwhile, both Chavani and Sithole applied for bail at the Saselamani Magistrate’s Court a fortnight ago and they will know the outcome on May 26.