EFF says Hillary Gardee’s head had bullet wound, accuses police of incompetence

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has accused the South African Police Service (Saps) of not handling the investigation of Hillary Gardee’s murder properly.

This is after the EFF claimed post-mortem results revealed that Hillary – the daughter of the party’s former secretary-general and attorney, Godrich Gardee – was shot in the back of head.

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Speaking outside Gardee’s home in Mpumalanga on Wednesday, EFF’s national spokesperson Sinawo Tambo said a forensic team made the discovery rather than the police.

“The police on the scene did not pick up that Hillary had been shot and this is gross incompetence. It does not need forensics to identify a bullet wound on a body so that means the police did not conduct thorough investigations of the crime scene,” he said.

Tambo said the crime scene is now contaminated and questioned the professionalism of the police investigating Gardee’s murder.

“[The police] now can’t recreate that crime scene, they haven’t located cartridges, they don’t know what happened in terms of that location there,” said Tambo.

“This sheds a very concerning light on whether the police are taking this matter seriously.

“We had thought [the police] were working hard and had placed faith in them. But as things stand now, there is no indication that this is going to go anywhere if we allow the South African Police Service to lead this process.

“To be unable to identify a bullet wound… we are extremely disappointed.”

Hillary’s body was found in an area just outside Mbombela, previously known as Nelspruit, in Mpumalanga four days after she was reported missing.

The 28 year old was last seen on Friday at Spar Supermarket in Mbombela.

This is a developing story