Marianne Merten On Wednesday this week, 19 days after the first dead girl was discovered, Kuils-river police started plotting on a map where the missing and the deceased disappeared. Four young girls have been found dead in the Kuilsriver area, several others have vanished and residents fear a child serial killer is at large. The police, however, say there is insufficient evidence to support this theory, but are also refusing to provide details of how many children have been reported missing. Their excuse is the moratorium on statistics announced by police National Commissioner Jackie Selebi – a moratorium apparently directed at processed statistics as opposed to raw information.
The Kuilsriver police arrested a suspect, Basil Pienaar, last week in connection with one of the murders. But all they will say – beyond expressing caution about the serial- killer theory – is that they want the community to come forward with information. On the instruction of the provincial police commissioner the dockets were passed on to the Peninsula murder and robbery unit this week.
Standing among the flowers in the yard of his tiny Happy Valley home, the father of murdered 11-year-old Jacqueline Smit says: ”I put the matter in God’s hands.” The protective gaze of James and Gertruida Smit rests on their five-year-old daughter, Petronella. The family hopes the court will deal with Pienaar, who is scheduled to appear again next Thursday. Jacqueline’s body was discovered last week on a heap of rubbish in the backyard of a factory near her home. She went missing on her way to the shops on August 26 – just days after she helped search for her best friend Nadia van Willingh, who had disappeared on August 19. Jacqueline was buried last Friday. On Monday Nadia’s decomposed body was discovered. The horror that has struck these fragile communities has spread beyond their boundaries. The white relatives of James Smit want to rekindle the family ties they cut after he married into the coloured community. A family reunion is planned at the school the little girl attended. The flag at Silversands Primary School flies at half mast. Both Jacqueline and Nadia attended grade five there. Classmates placed flowers and poems on their desks – first in the hope that Nadia, and later Jacqueline, would be found alive; now in remembrance of both girls. A missing-person poster of 10-year-old Nadia still hangs in the principal’s office. The walls of the school hall display the posters of more missing pupils and neighbourhood children: Bongeka Mangaliso (17), Charlene van der Westhuisen (21 months), Florencia Langenhoven (5) and Renata Ismail (4). ”Despite our hardship, we try to be positive,” says principal Christo van der Rheede. The children are still traumatised and reluctant to talk. On Youth Day the school focused on the rights of children and missing youngsters as part of an awareness project. ”It has had a tremendous impact on teachers, pupils and parents,” he told Western Cape Community MEC for Safety Hennie Bester during a visit to the school. ”I had a phone call from a hysterical mother. She wants to keep her child at home.”
About 500 children from Happy Valley, Camelot and Wesbank have to walk across fields and a river to attend classes at Silversands Primary. Their school will be completed only next September. When it rains, dozens stay away. Unlike Silversands suburb, which was built 10 years ago, Wesbank is a new low-cost housing development. About 25 000 people moved there from various squatter camps across the peninsula. Unemployment is rife and 120 shebeens ply their trade in the community. There is no police station and no clinics. Residents must cross the R300 highway to buy electricity for their prepaid metres. Kuilsriver police station, with its 30 detectives, battles to police half-a- million residents in 80 suburbs, 11 informal settlements, 67 farms and three industrial areas. It was a community policing initiative to trace missing children – Project Seek – which drew attention to the Kuilsriver area as more people came forward with information on missing children. The first girl to disappear was Zintle Tsotetsi (5). Sixteen days after she went missing on August 3 police found her skull, foot, bones and clothing in bushes in Wesbank. A day after Wilhelmina Hanson (12) disappeared on August 5 her body was found near a river at Wesbank. Police say she was raped. Nadia van Willingh disappeared on August 19 while playing outside her home. Jacqueline Smit disappeared on August 26; her body was found the next day. Elrich Young (5) is still missing after disappearing from his Sarepta home on August 30. The crime-scene cordon clearly marks the spot where Nadia’s body was found. Table Mountain looms in the distance. Nadia’s foster mother, Martha Deneke, on Tuesday stood there with friends and neighbours, knowing in her heart that the body was that of her missing child. ”The child murderers must be found before more children disappear,” she said quietly.