Zuma in Elsies for anti-crime imbizo

Community pleads for help with houses and jobs

‘WE ARE broken as a community, but we need your help Mr President.” These were the pleas of community leaders to President Jacob Zuma, as he visited Elsies River for the second time this month. The first time he came was soon after the body of threeyear-old Courtney Pieters was found.

He consoled her mother, Juanita Pieters, and promised her a house. This time he was there as part of an anti-crime imbizo.

At the meeting, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu also announced that they would be assisting Courtney’s parents with finding a house. “The Pieters family have been renting a room for seven years and their case is urgent,” Sisulu said.

She also promised that they would find land for other community members of Elsies River. She asked if people would build their own houses and they responded that they would.

Zuma said when he visited Elsies River two weeks ago, to sympathise with the family, he thought “that something went wrong in our society”.

“Courtney’s father told me that the perpetrator broke every bone in his child’s body, so that she could fit into a plastic bag. After hearing this I felt I had to go to the police station. Because the report that I got was that the police did not handle the case properly at the beginning. But there was some exaggeration. We have given the community a mobile police station. After my interaction with the family of Courtney Pieters and seeing the state of the family, I saw they had no place to stay and I made arrangements to help them.”

He said attacks on women and children are serious and he urged the community to assist the government in fighting crime. “Losing a child under such brutal circumstances