From the news desk

Police criticized for Courtney Pieters search

Share this article

By Melanie Sauer

Elsies River residents have criticized the police for allegedly failing to adequately support their search for missing three-year-old, Courtney Pieters. The Elsies River community have come out “empty handed”, after another night of searching into the early hours of the morning for young Courtney. The toddler disappeared last Thursday after playing with friends outside.

The Mitchell’s Plain Community Policing Forum (CPF) spokesperson Faisal Brown, spoke about the disappointing results this morning.

“We’ve covered areas including open fields, camping sites, man holes, storm water and drainage systems, the surrounding houses, and also in the bins. There has been a lot of frustration,” says Brown.

This frustration led to residents marching to the police station at 1am on Tuesday morning, demanding sniffer dogs to assist the search. None were available. Residents are turning their attention to garbage bins on Tuesday before garbage collection early Wednesday morning.

“(Residents) feel that after today there will be very little hope of finding her,” says Brown.

The Manenberg Safety Forum also joined the search efforts on Tuesday and had the same criticism. MSF chairperson Roeshanda Pascoe criticised the police for exhausting all efforts for children of affluent suburbs, but neglecting those from poorer communities.

“Why isn’t Courtney’s case getting the same service as any child that disappears,” she said.

Pascoe also lamented the alleged mistreatment of Courtney’s devastated mother, Juanita Peters. According to her, Juanita has been harshly interrogated by the police.

“Why must the mother be treated as a perpetrator? Her house was searched four times yet the police are reluctant to give a search warrant to search all the houses in the area. We must cordon off Elsies River and every house must be searched thoroughly with a sniffer dog. This must happen tonight because it’s the sixth day that Courtney has been gone!”

In response, Western Cape police said crimes against women and children are a police priority and are addressed with “dedication by members of SAPS”.

“Our members are bound by a code of conduct. The complainant is encouraged to lodge a complaint with police management or IPID so that their allegations can be investigated. The alleged behaviour by our members will not be tolerated and we will take appropriate action if the allegations can be substantiated,” said Captain FC Van Wyk. VOC


Share this article

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

WhatsApp WhatsApp us
Wait a sec, saving restore vars.