One of the suspects is understood to be known to the family of Mdhluli, whilst the other is a minor, who was released into the custody of his parents. The third suspect who was also arrested on Monday, is expected to appear in on Wednesday. The fourth suspect is also expected to appear in the dock later on this week.

Both the accused made brief appearances in the dock before their cases were postponed. The first suspect who was arrested, is understood to be the last to be in the company of the missing couple. He is believed to be known to Mdhluli and her family. The second, third and fourth suspects that have been arrested were found with different vehicle parts believed to be that of the missing journalist. Mdhluli's son, Treasure, says his family hopes that the accused will lead police to finding the missing couple.

“With the arrests we are a bit relieved because now we can see something coming because there was nothing for some time a bit over two months and it was very frustrating. So at least now that there is some developments in the case we are able to get some relief because we can see that it is going to come to an end soon and we are going to get the answers we need. As a family we would just be very happy to find them both in good health and that is what we really want now,” Mdhluli said.

Mdhluli's sister, Lillian Mokgala says she believes if police acted more swiftly they would have already found the missing couple.
“If the energy that they put in these few days, if they had put it from the day one they were lost, we should have been having a closure by now. But on top of that I just want to say that you because we can see where we are going and this situation was killing us slowly and it was frustrating because you are stuck and you don't know what to expect the following the day. So it's a relief to arrest these four people,” Mokgala said.

National Police Spokesperson, Athlenda Mathe says authorities are now treating this matter as a case of hijacking and kidnapping, with the possibility of more charges being added.

“The SA Police (have) since changed the missing persons case to a kidnapping and car hijacking case. Additional charges such as house robbery and being in possession of stolen property are likely to be added. A multidisciplinary team involving crime and counterintelligence, cybercrime unit, organised crime detectives, serious and violent crimes detectives, police air and drone pilots are amongst the units involved in the case. The search is still on for the missing couple and for other suspects,” Mathe said.

---SABC---