The DA condemns the vicious murder of a 31-year old woman, whose naked and ravaged body was discovered by a police officer on the outskirts of Calvinia yesterday.
According to reports, her skull and body were sliced open and her insides were spilling out. She also appeared to have been beaten and was discarded in a shallow grave covered with rocks, on the hill near Jacaranda Street.
She was last seen by her family on Saturday and her inhumane death has left them and the local community reeling in shock.
The DA is pleased that two suspects, aged 41-year and a 21-years old, have been arrested. No amount of justice, however, will undo the torture that the victim must have endured, or even bring her back.
We wonder what Police Minister Bheki Cele might say about her death – was she “unlucky” to become a victim of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in South Africa, the rape capital of the world?
According to the latest crime stats, the country experienced 9 516 cases of rape and 6 424 murders in the three month period under review. This is an indication of a country where crime has nothing to do with luck but is instead the manifestation of a Police Minister, who is failing the South African Police Service (SAPS) and has failed the murdered woman, her family and the many other thousands who have also become victims of crime.
The DA in the Northern Cape emphasises the Party’s call on President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire Police Minister Bheki Cele.
We also call on SAPS, regardless of capacity and resource constraints, to leave no stone unturned as they gather evidence and push for the speedy processing of the DNA results, despite the countrywide DNA backlog of 150 000, to secure a swift conviction and the harsh sentencing of the killers.