/ 1 February 2014

Hawks will not investigate Pippie Kruger fund

Pippie Kruger and her mother Anice in August 2013.
Pippie Kruger and her mother Anice in August 2013.

The Hawks will not investigate claims that money is being misappropriated from burn victim Pippie Kruger's foundation, Pippie se Gesiggie (Pippie's little face), the South African crime investigating unit said on Saturday.

"The matter is closed and would no longer be investigated," said spokesperson Captain Paul Ramaloko.

No further details were made available.

Pippie sustained third-degree burns when a gel firelighter is believed to have exploded in her father's hands on New Year's Eve in 2011. She was two years old at the time.

In June 2012, Pippie underwent pioneering surgery in which her own cloned skin, grown in a US laboratory in Boston, was grafted on to her wounds.

Since then, the fund has paid for skin cultivation and the transplant thereof for Celiwe Maseko (5) from Kagiso on Johannesburg's West Rand.

The Hawks said last year that a probe was under way into claims that money was being misappropriated from the foundation. – Sapa