Zille calls for meeting to discuss action on kid murders

PREMIER Helen Zille will call another meeting of NGOs to gauge their responses to her proposal for a study into child murders to determine if a commission of inquiry is necessary.

“I will convene a meeting of stakeholders actively involved in child safety issues. I will also seek their responses to my proposal for an in-depth expert study into six child murder cases. This study will help us to determine whether a formal commission of inquiry is an appropriate step, or whether there are other, more effective steps the provincial government can take to help prevent child murders,” Zille said.

“The study would document what each case is about, analyse details and use comparable international studies to recommend a solution.”

Zille wrote a lengthy piece outlining her position on the issue for online publication The Daily Maverick. She provided insight into what it would take to set up an inquiry and the predicament she was facing.

Earlier this year she met various NGOs that called for an inquiry into the child murders to be established.

“I left the NGO meeting with the sense that we were all on the same page, and that they would identify the six cases that could provide the focus of the preliminary study. They didn’t. Instead of continuing the productive interaction, they ran a publicity campaign, slating the provincial government and accusing me of refusing to establish a commission of inquiry, because it was ‘too expensive’. It was not for the first time that I was amazed at the wilful distortion of the facts.”

In 2012, various demonstrations were held by community-based leaders asking Zille to investigate allegations of police inefficiency in Khayelitsha and the breakdown in relations between the community and the police.

Zilles said it made sense to establish a commission based on the unanswered questions. She said she would establish a similar commission into the murders of children without delay if she could frame questions, hence her meeting with NGOs.

The ANC in the province has welcomed Zille’s decision.