‘Find killers before we find them’
“WE HAVE committed to the family to find these killers, and we have committed to Bheki Cele’s words that he must find them before we find them. If we find them before him, we will not give you any guarantee as to what is going to happen.”
These were the words of EFF leader Julius Malema at the Gardee homestead yesterday, where preparations were under way for the funeral of Hillary Gardee, slain daughter of former EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee. The body of the university student was found abandoned in Mpumalanga on Tuesday.
“We have deployed all manner of resources on the ground to look for these criminals. The report we have is that we can rest assured that it is not a mission that comes from outside. It is a mission that comes internally. Therefore, we have no reason to be looking over the borders as to who could have done this,” said Malema, who was flanked by senior EFF leaders, including his deputy, Floyd Shivambu.
“The assurance we have got from the intelligence we deployed on the ground is that it is internal work and we are becoming closer to the situation. We want to teach them a lesson that they will never forget for the rest of their lives, because they took the wrong one this time around. Anyone who touches our children, touches us. They don’t want to see the ugly side of the EFF,” said Malema.
On Tuesday, the EFF announced that Hillary’s body had been found after she went missing on Friday.
She was shot execution style, said national spokesperson Sinawo Thambo yesterday.
“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 that 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 identified a bullet wound ...
“That means the police did not conduct a thorough investigation of the crime scene and, at this point, it is too late – that crime scene has been contaminated, people were doing walkabouts with the media there when the police on the ground had failed to identify that there was a bullet wound ... They have not located cartridges, they do not know what happened in terms of the location there,” he said, citing a post-mortem report.
Hillary Indira Gardee, aged 28, was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1994.
The SAPS said the team assembled to investigate and arrest the killers behind the murder had “worked tirelessly overnight” since the discovery of the body on Tuesday.
Mpumalanga police spokesperson Colonel Donald Mdhluli said the 3-year-old child with Hillary at the time of her abduction would assist in the investigation through the involvement of experts.
“There was a child, a 3-year-old. Remember, regarding the manner in which children communicate, there is always a need to have experts, especially social workers. Of course, children have a way of communicating a message,” Mdhluli told broadcaster Newzroom Afrika during an interview.
“We believe that will be part of the investigation. However, there is also other information, for example, the CCTV footage that will also come on board to assist this team of experts.”
Mdhluli said the SAPS is hopeful the case will be cracked and the perpetrators arrested. “We believe that each and every detail that these experts are having now, and they are trying to get, will help them crack the case,” he said.
Police have appealed for information from community members to assist in solving the murder case. |