Murdered Hillary Gardee will be buried tomorrow
THE burial of Hillary Gardee, the slain daughter of former EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee will take place tomorrow, the family have announced.
“The Gardee family wish to announce that the funeral of the late beloved daughter of the Gardees will be held on Saturday, May 7, at Kamagugu township in Nelspruit, at the Church on the Hill,” said family spokesperson Sinawo Thambo, who is also EFF national spokesperson.
“As the family, we would like to extend our appreciation, once again, to the general public, the people of South Africa, for the consistent support.”
He said the outpouring of support, including from political parties, showed that “we are not primary enemies in society, but we are opponents”.
Thambo appealed to community members “to respect the proceedings on Saturday”.
“Let us not cause a stampede or flood the funeral. We will be extending invites. We do, of course, understand that this is a national tragedy, but let us also have a sense of humanity to respect that the family is in mourning and not turn the burial into a spectacle,” said Thambo.
On Wednesday, the EFF revealed that Hillary, 28, was shot execution-style after a bullet was found lodged at the back of her head.
She was found dead in bushes 45km outside of Mbombela on Tuesday by passers-by on their way to work.
Hillary had been missing since Friday after she was last spotted at her local supermarket.
Thambo said they were concerned that the police had not mentioned that she was shot.
“We have received information that the bullet wound was located in the back of her head. It means she was shot almost execution style. Our biggest concern is the police on the scene did not pick up that Hillary Gardee had been shot.
“This is gross incompetence – it does not need forensics to identify a bullet wound. That means the police did not conduct a thorough investigation.”