Heads of SAPS should be ashamed

The leadership of the South African Police Service (SAPS), namely former Police Ministers Riah Phiyega, Fikile Mbalula and the current head of the police Bheki Cele, should hang their heads in shame for their failure to bring justice to the Meyiwa family for the death of Senzo.

If this is the democracy South Africans were promised after suffering under apartheid, then everything that black South Africans suffered under apartheid was indeed in vain. Then the so-called democracy that all South Africans voted for in 1994 was nothing but a sham.

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Instead, an innocent person was later dragged through the courts after he was labeled as Senzo’s killer in a cover-up to shield the real killer. When that failed and the case against the suspect was kicked out of court, police heads started a campaign to deliberately lie and deceive the Meyiwa family by saying that they were working on finding the killer and bringing him to court.

When Mbalula took over as head of the SAPS he too embarked on the same campaign of lies and deceit that took the dead soccer star’s family on a false path. Cele came in after Mbalula and he too lied and made promises that to this day remain unfulfilled and that may obviously have led to the frustration of the family and the death of Senzo’s father from frustration.

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I hope whoever takes over from Cele will be able to bring closure and help heal the tragic double pain the Meyiwa’s has suffered from the death of Senzo and now his father, who died of a broken heart following the empty promises made by the most senior officers in the SAPS.

The failure by Cele to fulfill first his obligation as a police officer to the slain former Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana goalkeepers’ family will forever remain an indelible mark and a bloody stain on the image of the SAPS. It is grossly unacceptable for Riah, Fikile, and Bheki to pretend the Senzo Meyiwa murder was a difficult case to probe.

The only difficult thing about the police thoroughly probing the case and arresting those involved, is that despite all the facts at their disposal – they seem to have deliberately decided to make probing the case impossible and thus allow the criminals involved to get away with murder.

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As such, the SAPS has denied the Meyiwa family justice twice, firstly by refusing to arrest his killers and secondly by denying his family closure that, without doubt, would have saved them the grief of mourning the death of the head of their family and Senzo’s father, Sam Meyiwa.

Lazarus ‘Fisto’ Khoza

Marimba Gardens

Vosloorus