#CourtneyPieters: Family upset with march

Cape Town - As Courtney Pieters’ family lays her to rest, another peace march is being planned to coincide with the slain toddler’s funeral. But this doesn’t sit well with the bereaved family.

After Friday’s peace march to the site where 3-year-old Courtney was found, family spokeswoman Roegchanda Pascoe said the planned march for this morning had upset the Pieters family.

“The timing is really wrong,” Pascoe said.

“The family thinks any march in support of them is good, but the marchers could have chosen a better time or gone to support the family at the funeral.”

Jalal Allie, Topform

Athletics Club assistant treasurer, confirmed the club organised the march, but he added he wasn’t the best person to respond to the Weekend Argus’s question.

Russel Mehl, the club’s chairman, said they had not met the family to make arrangements, as he expected the family was “inundated” with other arrangements.

Courtney Pieters’s mother, Juanita Pieters, and Courtney’s brother, Adrian Pieters, during the memorial service for the 3-year-old. Picture: Ayanda Ndamane

Furthermore, meeting with the family wasn’t the march’s focus, he said.

Mehl said the march, expected to attract 2000 people, was meant to highlight the issue of violence against women and children.

Mother-of-two, Michelle Scholtz-Thomas, an Elsies River resident, said she joined the march because of the spate of violent crimes against women and children on the Cape Flats in recent months.

Children at the site where the body of Courtney Pieters was found.

“We as ordinary moms, dads, brothers and sisters from the community need to do something and we have decided to start with an awareness and solidarity peace walk.

“This is to show that the Elsies River community, along with all other communities, is here. We are present. We feel the family’s pain and sorrow. We need to rise up in any form possible. We don’t have all the answers, but we can’t do nothing. I’m tired of just shaking my head at the news.”