Cornelius Basson, Lentegeur
With August being Women’s month as well as the month of compassion, we, the Chad Basson Foundation, wish to applaud the Mothers Move for Justice (MMJ) who marched against the many senseless murders and the lack of progress by SAPS detectives.
In addition, we also want to commend the mothers who initiated and were part of the gathering of mothers who had children violently taken away by these cowardly acts.
It is indeed a travesty of justice that a society, which prides itself on having a constitution and Bill of Rights, which is purportedly among the best in the world, has to embark on marches just to make their voices heard.
These detectives talk about the rights of the criminal while quickly forgetting about the rights of our innocent children whose valuable lives were snuffed out so easily by ruthless thugs.
What these bloodthirsty, trigger-happy criminals don’t know is that they do not only violently disrupt a household, a family but a whole community.
What is so sad is that many of these parents cannot find closure due to a lack of progress in their children’s cases.
In my son’s case, despite us doing all the spadework and giving the detectives all the information, including the name of the killer, which we found out afterwards, there simply is no follow-up from the detectives
The head of detective services, Major General Jeremy Vearey, as well as the head of Anti-Gang Unit, Major General Andre Lincoln, are arrogant in their approach and refuse to deal with the complaint.
The community police forums are just mouthpieces of the police instead of helping the community and the police ombudsman does not assist when approached.
I have now approached the standing committee of Parliament but don’t have high hopes.
I think it’s about time that a unit of detectives whose sole mandate is to work on cold cases be established so that families can find closure. Today, Wednesday August 14, we’re celebrating my son’s 21st, and not once, a year on, was anybody questioned despite the names given.