SA ‘sucker punched’ by child murders
THE rape and murder of 3-year-old Courtney Pieters was aptly described by a radio personality as a “sucker punch” to Cape Town and the country.
And there is no other way to describe the incident that took place last year.
This week wrapped up a yearand-a-half of reporting on Mortimer Saunders, who has been handed two life terms for what the Western Cape High Court described as heinous crimes he committed on a vulnerable, defenceless child with whom he had shared a home since her birth.
Courtney was one of several girls, over the past two years, who fell victim to the hands of predatory men they trusted.
Before handing down her sentence on Wednesday, Judge Babalwa Mantame said that after studying statistics, it was found that for the past three financial years, 40% of all rapes in South Africa were committed against children, and during that same period, 2 600 children were murdered.
Stacha Arendse, 11, Iyapha Yamile, 4, six-month-old Zahnia Woodward, Charnelle McCrawl, 10, Rene Roman, 13, and Stacey Adams, 6, are included among those numbers.
When we initially heard of Courtney’s disappearance on May 5 last year, a day after she was reported missing, there were hopes that she would return home safely.
By May 8 there was still no sign of her, and a community search was in full swing, determined to find her.
Nine days later, while at a social gathering, the news broke that her body had been found.
Hours later, the man who had joined searches every day and who was always close by when we visited the family was arrested.
On Mother’s Day, a day after her body was found, the same house we had frequently visited was cordoned off as a crime scene.
Rehashing all these emotions as an “outsider” compares similarly with a drop in the ocean to what the families of victims must have gone through and still go through.
Young girls who had their dreams and dignity stripped from them now have their names shining as beacons of light for justice.
May their souls rest in peace.