Durban: The EFF will show the killers of former EFF secretary general Godrich Gardee’s daughter the party’s ugly side because “if anyone touches our children, they touch us,” EFF leader Julius Malema says.
He made the remarks following a visit to the Gardee family.
Hillary, 28, was found dead in a bush, some 45km outside Mpumalanga on Tuesday morning.
Gardee went missing on Friday, April 29. She was last seen with the three-year-old girl that she was adopting, at the Nelspruit Plaza Supermarket just after 5pm.
Her body was reportedly discovered by timber workers on Tuesday morning.
Malema said the EFF had promised the Gardee family that it would find Hillary’s killers.
He warned that Police Minister Bheki Cele and the police must find the killers before the EFF did as the party could not guarantee what would happen if it found the perpetrators first.
[MUST WATCH]: CIC @Julius_S_Malema says the criminals took a wrong one this time. Anyone who touches our children touches us.
— Economic Freedom Fighters (@EFFSouthAfrica) May 4, 2022
The police better find whoever murdered Hillary because if we get them first, we’ll teach them a lesson. #RIPHillaryGardee pic.twitter.com/WAQZarSp4n
“We want to teach them a lesson that they will never forget for the rest of their lives, they’ve took the wrong one this time around.
“Anyone who touches our children touches us. They don’t want to see the ugly side of the EFF but, they invited it and we shall show that them that ugly side of the EFF,” Malema warned.
He said the EFF would support former secretary general and give Hillary a dignified and memorable send-off.
“It is indeed a sad day that South Africa comes to experience another death of a young woman, killed by unknown criminals with unknown motives. We are here to send our message of condolences to our former SG Godrich Gardee and to the entire family of Gardee and the Mbatha family.
“We know that it is not an easy thing for our former secretary general and the family. It is not an easy thing for us, as the EFF, so you can imagine how the family is feeling right now.
“We have committed to the family to find these killers and we have committed to Bheki Cele’s word that he must find them before we find them because if we find them before him, we will not give him any guarantee as to what is going to happen,” Malema said.
The leader of the red berets said the EFF had no reason to look for the perpetrators across the border. Intelligence the EFF had deployed had determined it was an internal work and they were getting “closer to the situation”.
“As the EFF, we are one big family. Whether present or past leaders, to us there is no former SG or former chairperson or former anything. Once SG always an SG because you’re an SG of a particular generation and, therefore, that respect will always be there,” Malema said.
Police Minister Bheki Cele and Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola visited the scene on Tuesday afternoon.
Cele said they were “looking for the criminal that murdered a young human being in a brutal way”.
“Let us get that person who will help us figure out if there are politics in it, if there is economics in it, if it is hate or passion, whatever crime. But, definitely, we are not looking for any motive for now,” Cele added.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE