Don't be reckless about childcare - Mbalula
25 May 2017
Cape Town - Parents should not be reckless about who looks after their children, Police Minister Fikile Mbalula said in Elsie's River on Thursday, where the locals are still grieving the murder of Courtney Pieters.
"You must understand that when a case of that nature happens, it is a case where in which parents also must take responsibility for children, as guardianship," he said after cutting the ribbon on a satellite police station parked in the Adriaanse Civic Centre's grounds.
"Parents must not be reckless, because today you can't even trust your uncle. You are looking at the uncle, smiling with the uncle, the uncle is seeing something from an innocent girl.
"So children and families must guard, especially girls. The society we live in has become so cruel, and sick."
Mbalula said that in 3-year-old Courtney's case, her mother Juanita had left her in the "guardianship of society".
Gangsterism
He said Elsie's River was chosen for a satellite police station because of gangsterism, and residents' complaints that police took too long to respond.
He said the police station would move around Elsie's River, and that it had to work, not just be a "Hollywood" moment.
It would offer certification and crime reporting functions. In future, the police's tactical response units would be beefed up to help tackle gangsterism.
He praised residents for helping to find Pieters when she disappeared on May 4. Multiple searches were launched and a volunteer found her body on May 13.
He said police were on top of the complaint by her parents that police did not do enough to find her.
Mbalula said the opening of the police station was him keeping his promise during Pieters' memorial service last Saturday to bring more policing into the area.
People had to find ways of keeping children out of trouble so they did not get bored and become criminals in the flatlands, which he described as a "nest of criminality".
Provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khombinkosi Jula expressed gratitude for the extra equipment.
