‘No more empty promises, Minister’

‘Investigation led to discovery of an unidentified body of a child in a shallow grave’

ANGRY Eastridge residents have slammed Police Minister Bheki Cele’s visit as an insult and gave him a hostile reception following the murder of 6-year-old Stacey Adams.

The accused child killer, 25 – the boyfriend of Stacey’s mother – will appear in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court.

This as the case of Odwa Nkololo from neighbouring Khayelitsha, who is accused of killing of 4-year-old Iyapha Yamile, was postponed to August 6 in the Western Cape High Court yesterday. He is on also on trial for the rape of an 8-year-old girl.

Cele had been in a private meeting with the Adams family when residents booed him, saying they were fed up with empty promises.

They also shouted for police to implement preventative measures instead of reactive responses to crimes committed against children.

The visit came after the home of the alleged killer was torched by angry residents on Sunday night following the discovery of Stacey’s body.

Stacey went missing on Saturday and was last seen by her grandmother, who reported her missing at Mitchells Plain police station.

The child had left her residence to visit her mother in De la Rey Street, Eastridge, Mitchells Plain.

The girl’s naked body was found next to a wheelie bin in which her bloodied clothing had been dumped.

An immediate search was launched by police assisted by neighbourhood watches, street committees, sector crime forum members and the community policing forum (CPF).

“While searching in De la Rey Street, the search party was alerted by the community to soft soil at a house in the street.

‘‘An investigation led to the discovery of an unidentified body of a child in a shallow grave.

‘‘While a man who is a resident at the house was questioned, community members became aggressive and made an attempt to harm the suspect,” he said.

A tense stand-off between residents and police resulted in two officers being injured after stones were thrown at them.

Police were also investigating a case of public violence.

Resident Shahieda Schoeman said the visit by Cele was a smack in the face of residents as they had long requested the assistance of police to protect women and children.

“It is not on. They (suspects) live a luxury life in that prison with meals three times a day while our children are suffering and dying outside,” she said.

Mitchells Plain CPF cluster chairperson Lucinda Evans said she was “gutted” by the murder.

“We are devastated by the murder of yet another girl in the community. It comes at the start of the school holidays where many children are at home and unsupervised, and we need to reinforce the message of child protection and being vigilant,” she said.

In Nkololo’s rape case, it emerged that the 8-year-old victim may have not have relayed to the court the same statements she made to three other people who turned State witness about of how she was raped.

It was also a suggested that she was influenced by her mother not to reveal the truth. The child’s mother was in a relationship with the accused.

Judge Diane Davis said it seemed she may be dealing with a situation where the child “was unable to testify due to undue influence”.

Davis said the child “may be deprived of her voice due to the conduct of her mother… to protect the accused”.

Davis said ordinarily, the evidence of the three witnesses that the child had disclosed the alleged rape would be inadmissible because it was inconsistent with the child’s testimony and it amounted to hearsay.

But she had to postpone the matter for both Nkololo’s defence representative Susanna Kunn and State prosecutor Thabo Ntela to file head sof argument on why the evidence of the three witnesses should be admissible.