Cape Town - Religious leaders from across the Cape Flats in Cape Town will on Sunday convene an open air inter-faith service in front of the home of first year University of the Western Cape theology student Jesse Hess.
"Jesse, 19, was found raped and murdered, along with her 85-year-old grandfather Chris, in their Parow flat on August 30th, and no arrests have been made in the case to date," the Service and Allied Workers' Union of South Africa (Sawusa) said in a statement on Saturday.
The inter-faith prayer prayer service would be preceded by a march starting at the Parow Police Station in Voortrekker Road at 2.30pm.
A peace procession led by religious leaders, bikers, tow truck operators, a marching band, and a brass band would proceed from the station to 70 Victoria Road, the home of the late Jesse Hess.
Memorandums of demands would be handed over to a representative of the president's office, the premier's office, and mayor Dan Plato at the police station.
The prayer service followed the successful hosting of the interfaith prayer service for peace at the Joseph Stone Auditorium in August, and where the Cape Flats inter-faith declaration was adopted. The event at Joseph Stone, which was convened by Sawusa, was preceded by a procession of faith leaders through Kewtown where prayers were conducted at two gang hotspots.
"It is unacceptable that there was a speedy arrest of the alleged killer of [University of Cape Town student] Uyinene Mrwetyana, but after almost two weeks there's been no headway into the investigation of the rape and murder of Jesse Hess, yet they were both first year university students," Sawusa president Wilfred Alcock said in the statement.
"What is even more alarming is that the one case received mass media coverage with a hero-like send off, while in the case of Jesse her tragedy went almost unnoticed together with countless other women that were murdered on the Cape Flats at the same time.”
Alcock referred to 14-year-old Janika Mallo from Heinz Park whose half naked body was found "with her head bashed in", pregnant Sadiqah Newman from Manenberg, Jill-Paula Fernandez of Bonteheuwel, Chantal Dean of Delft, Denushe Witbooi of Eastridge, as well as the yet to be identified Khayelitsha woman found "with her head bashed in after a vehicle had been seen dropping off a body next to Lwazi Primary School in NY112 in Gugulethu", the statement said.