Cold case unit hunts killers
SA SOCCER hero Senzo Meyiwa died during an alleged break-in more than three years ago in a brutal murder which sent shock waves through the country. Time passed with no arrests and it became a cold case.
But now this case, along with thousands of others, is set to fall under the police ministry’s new “Cold Case Strategy”.
Police Minister Fikile Mbalula confirmed last week that the team investigating Meyiwa’s murder will be strengthened with additional detectives. This week he confirmed the establishment of the Cold Case Strategy.
And while there are a number of high-profile cold cases, there are tens of thousands of unclosed dockets detailing the loss of life of many ordinary South Africans. One example is four-year-old Taegrin Morris who was dragged to his death in a hijacking three years ago, yet his killers remain free.
The child was left dangling outside his mother’s car after three armed men pushed his mother and his eight-yearold sister out of the vehicle and sped off from his grandmother’s home in Reiger Park.
In the moments before the hijackers sped off, Taegrin’s mother Chantel had tried desperately to unstrap him but the safety belt jammed.
Sergeant Mashudu Phathela, the spokesperson for Reiger Park’s police station, said detectives were still pursuing leads and had appealed to the public to come forward with any information about the murder.
The strategy, according to Vuyo Mhaga, the spokesperson for the police ministry, is part of the SAPS Turn Around Vision 2018 which was introduced by national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khehla Sitole. “We started to canvas it some time last year. At the time it was linked to gender-based violence, but now we want to expand it to all cases,” Mhaga said.
He isn’t sure when the strategy will be launched. “Basically, we want to have some team or unit that is dedicated to old cases, so that people are able to find closure.
“So if you have a case that was opened and was never closed, or you don’t know what happened to it, then bring it forward and let’s have a look. Let’s find out if we can’t get closure on that.”
Gareth Newham, head of the governance, crime and justice division at the Institute for Security Studies, believes it will be the first time that the SAPS has considered introducing such a strategy, although he points out that under the previous national commissioner there was an emphasis to close dockets.
There were a lot of cold cases in South Africa, he said. “The detection rate for murder in South Africa is just over 20%, which means that in one in every five cases detectives are able to solve a murder case.
“So, if you think about it, there are thousands of unsolved murder cases. Obviously a cold case unit can’t investigate all them. So you need to have some sort of criteria to investigate a particular case.”
This criteria, said Newham, could be new technology or simply someone coming forward with information. However, he felt that such an initiative could be good for crime fighting.
“Anything that increases the chances of the police identifying and bringing criminals to court is a good initiative. It will certainly improve the public image of the police.”