Guests included ward councillor Charlie Crawford, the MMC for Community Safety Mthuthuzeli Siboza, and Reiger Park SAPS station commander Col Sipho Mathebula.
Also present at the meeting were the parents and relatives of Taegrin, Cuburne and Luke Tibbetts (who was hit by a stray bullet while on his mother’s lap in a car in Westbury).
According to Reiger Park community leader, Hein April, their prime objective was to create an opportunity for the NPA to meet residents and elaborate on its reasons for withdrawing the charges against Thamsanqa Twala, the initial suspect in the Taegrin murder.
However, the representative of the NPA never showed up.
Angry members of the community took this as a snub, accusing both the SAPS and the NPA of treating them as if they were unimportant.
“Those invited to address us on this important matter are not here. It shows us what the SAPS and NPA think about this community,’ said community leader, Hein April.
Siboza took to the podium and urged the community to postpone the meeting.
The community, however, decided to proceed in absentia of the representatives from both the NPA and Gauteng SAPS Head Office.
They demanded answers from Mathebula, as to why the police bungled the investigation into the Taegrin murder.
In response, Mathebula told the crowd that his unit is not involved in the investigations into the Taegrin case, as it was taken out of the hands of the Reiger Park SAPS.
“We are just like you, we are also being kept in the dark about this case. We have learned about the arrests and the dropping of the charges through the media,” said Mathebula.
Mathebula argued that they (the police) are not the ones who dropped the charges against Twala.
“The suspect was not released by the investigation officer, but by the NPA,” said Mathebula.
“It is the NPA’s responsibility to prosecute, and ours is to arrest, investigate and present the court with the docket. We have nothing to do with the suspect once he is in court.”
Speaking during the heated meeting, Taegrin’s mother, Chantel, called upon the Reiger Park community to stay united in fighting crime.
“With the help of the police we need to get rid of the criminals because it is our children who suffer because of crime.
“It’s about time we put the fear they have instilled in us back in them. We must stop fearing them,but they must fear us.”
The residents have insisted that the Gauteng SAPS Head Office and the NPA provide them with answers within seven days.
* The partially-burnt body of Cuburne van Wyk was found at a mine dump in Reiger Park, three days after he went missing from Ramaphosa.
Katlego Phoku, known to the Reiger Park community as ‘Chicken’, was arrested and he is expected to appear in court during December.
Exactly a week after the child was kidnapped, EMPD officers arrested a man from the community, on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering the little boy.
Meanwhile, Taegrin died in July after being dragged for a long distance behind his parent’s hijacked VW Golf.
A few months later, police arrested Thamsanqa Twala, who had been linked to the fatal hijacking.
He made several court appearances before the charges against him were withdrawn. – @FanieBoksburg
