Task team but little action on string of gay murders
THURSDAY marked the third anniversary of the murder of Rulov Senekal.
Senekal, 67, had been the wardrobe manager at the Joburg Theatre. On February 26 2012 he was found bound and suffocated in his flat in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.
He was one of at least eight gay men to have been murdered in Gauteng since 2010.
During the early stages of the investigation, police announced the formation of a provincial task team to investigate the eight murders.
Senekal’s niece, Lizelle Bright, this week spoke of her frustration at the fact that her uncle’s killer had not been arrested.
‘‘Nothing has happened . . . I went through all Rulov’s papers, e-mails and messages. We handed over evidence to the police, but I don’t think they ever did anything with it,” she said.
This included a spreadsheet that Bright created of names of potential witnesses, phone numbers and the serial numbers of Senekal’s stolen cellphone and laptop. She also spoke to his colleagues, some of whom said Senekal had appeared to be distraught weeks before his murder.
Bright trawled through her uncle’s Facebook page and the gay websites he visited, which she said hinted he might have been lured to an encounter through an online chatroom.
“I have to call the investigating officer all the time. These days, it goes to voicemail and he doesn’t bother to call me back.”
Attempts to reach the investigating officer, Warrant Officer Chris Muller, this week were unsuccessful.
Dawie Nel, the director of OUT, an organisation dedicated THEATRE: Rulov Senekal was murdered in 2012 to the empowerment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, said the organisation had taken a special interest in Senekal’s murder.
He said the case was handed to the rapid response team in the Department of Justice task team on violence on the basis of sexual orientation.
‘‘However, this team is not meeting as it is supposed to on a monthly basis and we therefore can’t monitor it,” he said.
The other men murdered were Manolis Veloudos, Siphiwe Nhlapo, Jim Cathels, Oscar O’Hara, Barney van Heerden, Jason Wassenaar and University of Johannesburg Professor Carl Mischke.
Two men, Craig Thomas, a paramedic from Kempton Park, and drug addict Jacques Terreblanche, were jailed for Mischke’s murder.
PAPERS: Senekal’s niece, Lizelle Bright