Pretoria - The speaker of council, Mncedi Ndzwanana, has come good on the promise he made during Palesa Malatji’s funeral on Saturday in Soshanguve.
He had promised the family and the community of Soshanguve that he would ensure the park behind Echibini Secondary School, where Palesa was murdered, was cleaned and that the street lights in the area were repaired, so there was no opportunity for criminals to hide out and wait for their next victim.
Malatji’s sexually assaulted body was found near the school after she failed to return home from extra classes.
On Monday, the Office of the Speaker was immediately in contact with the head of the metro’s Region 1 and requested the park be cleaned and that street lights in and around the park were working.
On Wednesday, the speaker led the clean-up of the park together with the regional team.
Ndzwanana also took the opportunity to visit the bereaved family again.
The speaker said he was concerned that it took the death of a child for a park to be cleaned and revived.
“I wish that something like this will not happen again. The community will not be able to sleep in peace until the perpetrators are arrested. The police must not rest until the person is found,” he said.
The speaker appealed to all community members to work together to find solutions to the problems the community faces every day.
He again pleaded with anybody who might know who committed the “horrendous acts” against Malatji to come forward and contact the SAPS.
“Palesa deserves justice,” he said.
Police Minister Bheki Cele said that more suspects had been taken in in connection with the murder of the 17-year-old.
Cele said that initially police took in six people, but as they were interviewing them, they realised they had to take in four more.
According to the minister, the forensics people were at the crime scene, where they collected DNA evidence and further samples taken from people interviewed by the police.
Pretoria News