Johannesburg - Almost five years after the first black principal of Sandown High School in Joburg was found naked and dead in Soweto, there are still no answers.
Principal Pule Kgaratsi was found dead in his Audi TT in White City in 2017. He had four bullet wounds and was found with his pants down.
He was appointed principal at Sandown High in 2015 and had received a number of awards as an educator.
Kgaratsi’s family said they were struggling to get closure because the police had not yet solved Pule’s murder case.
A private investigator has been hired by the family to try and get to the bottom of the murder.
It was suspected that Kgaratsi could have been killed in a gay love triangle gone wrong.
Queen Molefe, Kgaratsi's sister, said Soweto police were not giving the matter the needed attention because he was “gay”.
“We have been going to Moroka police station all these years. We even hired a private investigator who is also not getting assisted by the police to finish his work,” Molefe said.
She said police have not interviewed a witness who was one of the last people to see her brother alive. She also accused them of bad police work as some items his brother had on him, such as cellphones and a yellow jacket, have gone missing.
“There are so many things that were done wrong with the case. I have even written a letter to the Gauteng provincial Police Commissioner’s Office.”
The family said they were also hurt by the fact that a man claiming to be married to Kgaratsi had even managed to claim all his assets, including his pension which was around R3 million.
“That guy did not have the death certificate but he managed to cash in on Pule’s things,” Molefe said.
Kgaratsi’s alleged lover had apparently contacted the family and asked if he could claim the assets because they were in a relationship.
This resulted in an an altercation and the alleged lover told the family that Kgaratsi was cheating with a gangster in Soweto and had contracted HIV.
“The lover is gone now because he has the money but what we as the family care for now is getting justice for people.”
Gay activist and founder of the Feather awards Thami Kotlolo said police and other law enforcement officials had to be sensitised to issues around the gay community.
He said the number of gay murders in South Africa were concerning.
“It is sad that our leaders have not visited the homes of some of our people who died. There’s a lot of sensitisation which needs to be done for police and metro police,” Kotlolo said.
Gauteng police spokesperson Mavela Masondo said police were aware of the matter. He said there were leads that police were following but would not divulge these, as it would compromise the investigations.
Masondo added that there was no evidence linking Kgaratsi’s partner to the murder.
The Star