Concern about unsolved murders

Update

GEORGE NEWS - Unsolved murders in Thembalethu are piling up with police asking the public's help in the six most recent cases, which occurred in a period of one month. The murders took place between July and early August.

Xolani Henge, chairperson of the Thembalethu Community Police Forum (CPF) said these murders have caused panic in the community and many people are now living in fear.

"This is a serious concern to us as CPF and this is why we have agreed to reinforce our neighbourhood watch programme so that we can be more visible on the streets.

"However, we don't have enough capacity to monitor and patrol the entire Thembalethu," he said.

Henge identified a lack of cooperation between the police and residents as the main factor that contributes to the lack of arrests.

He said the community is reluctant to report crime as the processes involved are very exhausting for some.

Another factor is that people sometimes do not trust the police.

"The people are scared to report crime, fearing what the suspects might do to them. Another thing is that the Thembalethu police are under-staffed and many detectives lack knowledge and training in how to investigate these crimes. Hence it takes a very long time to make an arrest.

"The police are not visible enough in the community. We only have two police vehicles patrolling over weekends and this makes it easy for criminals to get away with committing a crime. It is not that there are no witnesses to these crimes; people don't want to walk all the way to the police station at night to report crime as they might, too, be victims. We really need a satellite police station and more police on the streets."

The murders in question are:

On 9 July a man was allegedly beaten to death in Zone 9 in what appeared to be mob justice. The deceased had allegedly broken into a house in Tsunami Park.

On Monday 10 July a man's body was found in the bushes in Thembalethu between Ntaka Street and the N2 highway. According to Captain Malcolm Pojie, Southern Cape Police spokesperson, the deceased was found with multiple stab wounds to his upper body.

A body was found at the Thembalethu Stadium on Wednesday 19 July. A passer-by found the deceased, Unathi Dyoyi, with stab wounds to his upper body at about 07:30. Police suspect he had been part of an armed business robbery earlier that morning at Community Cash Store in Zone 7.

On Saturday 29 July, Gladys Jantjies's body was found on the bank of a river near Matrose Street in Zone 2. She had been stabbed seven times.

On the same day, Saturday 29 July, the body of Mpumelelo Masala was found in front of his house in Mfanyana Street in Zone 9. He had been stabbed with a sharp object.

On 4 August a 37-year-old Nigerian national, Osondu Eze, was allegedly murdered by six unidentified men at the corner of Ngcakani and Masivuselele Street at 22:50 in the evening.

According to Captain Dumile Gwavu, Themablethu Police communication officer, not one of the above cases has been solved yet as no positive information has been obtained. The detectives are still investigating and information is not forthcoming. "The community is urged to help with information so that those cases can be finalised. If the information is not coming, it makes things difficult even for detectives to make a breakthrough because they depend on the information they receive," said Gwavu. Gwavu said the only case for which arrests have been made, is the body found between Ntaka Street and the N2-highway. However, the case still needs to be clarified. In the case of Unathi Dyoyi, police detectives are waiting for DNA samples from the police laboratory to be able to make arrests.

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