The family of Courtney Pieters is kwaad after President Jacob Zuma said accusations of cops not doing all they could into the investigation were “exaggerated”.
Complaints by the Mitchells Plain Crisis Forum and the Manenberg Crisis Forum, who led and assisted neighbourhood watches during the search for the missing girl, included the request for sniffer dogs to search the family’s home on two occasions - this was not granted.
“The police messed up this search. She might have been found on that first day if only they had searched the house as they were asked to do, but they never wanted to,” says Roegshanda Pascoe, of the Manenberg Crisis Forum, and the family’s spokesperson.
“To them, this child was nothing, a nobody, and I will not let this go.
Three-year-old Courtney of Elsies River was found buried in a shallow grave on 13 May, after being missing for nine days.
A boarder in the family home, Mortimer Saunders, 40, was arrested for her rape and murder the day after her body was discovered near Bofors Circle, Epping Industria, not far from their Salberau Estate home.
Addressing residents during a crime imbizo in the Adriaanse Community Centre on Tuesday, Zuma said he “believed there was a lot of exaggeration” over Courtney’s case.
“I spoke to the family and Juanita told me she was happy with the service of the police. The police are doing their best, but they need the support of the community.”
He acknowledged the complaints received “in the manner the police conducted the investigation of Courtney”.
“It is difficult to police crime that happens in the streets and it is even harder to police crime committed in homes.”
Zuma promised to speak to police minister Fikile Mbalula about the investigation, and Roegshanda now believes it was Mbalula who “fed the president lies”.
She says from the beginning of the investigation, the child’s parents, Juanita Pieters and Aaron Fourie, “fought” with police to get a progress report on the search.
A broken-hearted Juanita says Zuma has lied to the people.
“I told the president of my concerns that the police were not really searching for my child,” she says.
“I told him I was disappointed in the police, and he said he would deal with this matter in front of the whole world.
Meanwhile, Juanita is struggling to cope with the loss.
“It’s just sometimes when I sit quietly and I remember how she felt in my arms that my heart aches for my child. That will never go away,” she says.
Two weeks ago, the president gave the family R10 000 cash and offered the family a home.
Saunders will again appear in the Goodwood Magistrates' Court on 24 August.