One month on, angry family in the dark
MORE than a month after 34-yearold Marc Leukes was stabbed at the Castle of Good Hope during a festival, later succumbing to his wounds in hospital, his family said they remained in the dark and had to do their own investigation.
Leukes, from Heideveld, was with his brother and friends at Heritage Groove on February 3 when he was stabbed. His mother, Ingrid Wakefield, was still too traumatised to speak to the media. However, according to his uncle, Leonard Wakefield, the family wanted justice for the single father of a 10-year-old daughter.
“It’s a great loss for the family because he played a huge role in the home. To make matters worse, we don’t know what happened and why. The only people you can speak to are the police, but it is absolutely no joy because we get no answers.
“If we don’t reach out to the investigating officer, he won’t come forth with anything. We have his personal number and he doesn’t reply.
“We look for answers through the comments section on Facebook and TikTok and direct message witnesses.
“We are pushing for the maximum because of his daughter who is not coping and it is showing in her (school) results.”
Wakefield said three suspects were arrested and were out on bail.
“When the two suspects appeared we were not aware. When my sister (Marc’s mother) asked who the other accused was, another detective said they gave themselves up.
“We were at court when the main accused appeared but he is out on R2000 bail, case postponed to June.”
Wakefield said they wanted to create awareness that organisers of events should have better safety measures in place. Police spokesperson, Malcolm Pojie, said the investigation continued.
“We have no new developments to report at this stage, but investigation continues. Due to the public holidays, a proper update will only be obtained from the relevant station during normal office hours.
“The family is welcome to liaise with the station management and should need be, arrange for an appointment with the station commander to address their concerns.”
CEO of the Castle Control Board, Calvyn Gilfellan, said: “We express our sincere condolences and it’s a very unfortunate incident. We have been contacted by the police and they have made a couple of visits to the site to look at the footage but the camera we had from the Military Museum has some footage but very grey.
“We have done whatever we could to help the police with their investigation. We will follow up with the police as we are also in the dark as to how far the case has progressed.”
He said event organisers went through an application process for an event permit. “The event organisers would have never been able to host the event at the Castle if their security plan was not signed off by the police and through the City.”