When the system fails: a mother's plea during 16 Days of Activism

Grieving mother Jessica Shah speaks out about how police failure to confiscate her daughter's ex-boyfriend's firearm led to her murder, despite multiple prior cases and a protection order. She calls for accountability in the SAPS during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.

AS WE OBSERVE 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, I am speaking out because I do not want another parent to suffer the way I am.

My 25-year-old daughter, Sasha Lee Monique Shah, was murdered in cold blood by her ex-boyfriend who shot her multiple times, a confirmed GBV case (inquest 212/2022)

Her killer had three prior cases at the same police station. My daughter’s case was the fourth.  And every time, he was allowed to keep his firearm.

If SAPS had removed his gun the first time he pointed it at a woman, my daughter would be alive today.

A female police captain from the Domestic Violence Unit failed to remove his firearm, even after serving Sasha’s protection order. She had 33 days to act before he killed my daughter.

Instead of being dismissed or criminally charged as the law requires, she got a two-month suspension.

To show how deep the connection was, in his final note, he even thanked a police officer from the very same station, highlighting the serious breakdown of boundaries and accountability within SAPS.

This is not a “mistake.” This is a system failure that cost my daughter her life.

And let me be clear: police officers must be held accountable for their actions, because their failures are costing women their lives.

Here is what my daughter wrote in her original protection order application. Her cry for help went unheard - a plea that now reads as a haunting warning:

“I cannot live a normal life with the continuous stalking and threats from this man. I do not know what he is capable of as he has a firearm. My family and I feel very unsafe as he parks outside our house and I do not have a father to assist.

“He tries to contact me every day and just yesterday he kidnapped me and told me he will make a very big scene if he doesn’t get to see me or if I get another boyfriend. I fear for my life every day with his threats.

“I insist on an interim order so that I may be protected as soon as possible as he is very unpredictable and I don’t know who he will hurt if he doesn’t see me.”

Sasha trusted the police, the law and the system – all of which failed her.

I speak today because no woman should die this way, and no mother should have to carry this agony.

During the 16 Days of Activism, we must fight for real change, remove firearms in domestic-violence cases, hold the police accountable and protect women before it is too late.

The system must not fail another woman.

Do not let another mother live my nightmare.

THE POST