Johannesburg - Senzo Meyiwa, Dolly Tshabalala, Vekneshan Moodley, Marvin Hollander, Charles Henderson, Taegrin Morris, Hennie de Vries, Sam Moloto, Cuburne van Wyk, Nthabiseng Selesho and her mother Kedibone.
These are just some of the people who were brutally murdered and are among the murder victims in the crime statistics for April 2014 to March 2015 that the police are expected to release before the end of this month.
Their names, however, will not be listed as the crime stats do not include the names of victims, but only the numbers of those affected.
They will just be numbers, statistics that will illustrate the murder rate in the country.
While some of the alleged perpetrators in these cases have been identified and are standing trial or have been sentenced already, others are still at large.
In March last year, Moodley was in Fordsburg Square with his girlfriend when they were held up, robbed and Moodley was fatally stabbed. A year later, Sipho Ntshingila and Sifiso Fano Khumalo were sentenced to life imprisonment by a judge who raised concern that they’d not shown any remorse.
In June last year, Tshabalala died in a fight with her partner, DJ Donald Sebolai, in his home in Jabulani, Soweto. Sebolai is on trial for her murder and says he didn’t mean to kill her.
On July 19 last year, Chantell Morris was securing her four-year-old son Taegrin in his car seat when a hijacker pointed a gun in her face.
She begged for time to take her son out of the car but, as she was trying to do this, one of the hijackers jumped into the driver’s seat and immediately sped off. Taegrin died after being dragged behind the car.
Thamsanqa Twala was arrested for the murder of the little boy but was later freed after charges against him were withdrawn due to a lack of evidence.
In August last year, the family of Cuburne Van Wyk, 3, identified his mutilated body only by the takkies he was wearing. The child was kidnapped in Reiger Park and his body was found days later on a mine dump; he’d been strangled and burnt. A year later Nathaniel Katlego Mpoku was jailed for life for Cuburne’s murder.
In September last year, Selesho was robbed of jewellery worth more than R300 000 and killed by people who then burnt her body. A customer, Candice Prevost, her fiancé Ashley de Villiers and former fiancé Wayne Williams are currently on trial for this.
Eight months later her mother, Kedibone Selesho, was shot dead by her partner Bongimusa Sukazi who then committed suicide.
At the time of his death on October 26 last year, Meyiwa was the goalkeeper for Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana and was in the prime of his career.
He was shot dead while visiting his girlfriend, pop star Kelly Khumalo, at her Vosloorus home. Investigations into his case have been fraught with complications, scandals, a wrongful arrest that led to the police being sued, and one of the investigating officers in the matter quitting the case.
Meyiwa’s murderer is still at large.
In December last year, Joburg metro cop Hollander was shot dead in Meadowlands, Soweto, and his partner injured when they responded to reports of a hijacking.
In January, Charles Henderson died in a home invasion in Muldersdrift, after he and his wife were tortured for hours by the robbers. Three suspects were arrested within days.
Hennie de Vries and Sam Moloto are two more victims whose killers are still at large.
On March 18, De Vries was the Good Samaritan who stopped to help Moloto who had been shot dead and his body set alight on the N1 in Maraisburg.
However, gunmen who were nearby, believed to be Moloto’s killers who lay watching as the car burnt, shot and killed him before he could even get out of his vehicle.
The Star