Uitsig mourns 4-year-old Thea Lewis
Cape Town - Uitsig residents filled the community centre on Saturday to bid farewell to four-year-old Thea Lewis, the youngest victim killed in ongoing gang violence.
While family, friends and the community gathered to grieve for the little girl, gunshots rang out in Uitsig.
Loud sobs could be heard as the child’s tiny white coffin was brought into the church.
Thea died in her mother’s arms on the afternoon of 18 April after a gang bullet hit her in the chest.
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The child was playing with her two-year-old sister, Hope, when rival skollies started shooting at each other across Uitsig Avenue.
Charged
Her heartbroken mother, Tammy, 25, says she heard the shots and the girls ran in.
Police arrested two men within hours of the shooting but only one of them, Brandon September, 21, was charged with her murder.
During her funeral, Thea was saluted by Uitsig Generation Cadets members who led the funeral procession and carried her coffin into the community centre.
FUNERAL: Many came out in their numbers for Thea’s burial on Saturday afternoon.
In his address, Reverend Vivian Meyer of the Light of God Community Outreach Ministry, slammed absent politicians whom he accused of only showing up when they needed votes.
“I was driving to the funeral today and looked to see if any of the politicians like (Community Safety MEC) Dan Plato were going to attend, but they are nowhere to be seen. This is what they think of our people and only come here when they need us to make a cross for them,” says the holy man.
“But the loss of Thea is a tragedy and Uitsig community must start standing together and pray gangsters out of the community. And if the parents of these gangsters want to support them, they must also go.”
Blue Downs Community Police Forum chairperson, Reginald Maart, says Thea’s death has shaken the community and they are now working to curb gang violence in Uitsig.
“It is so tragic to have to attend a funeral of an innocent four-year-old child and something must be done. We applaud the police for the swift arrest of the suspects and will be following the case closely,” he said.
SHOT DEAD: Thea Lewis, 4
September, an alleged member of The Terribles gang, made his first appearance in the Goodwood Magistrates’ Court last week and will return to court on Thursday for a bail information hearing.
Residents plan to oppose his bail application and will submit a petition to court.