Saturday, May 7, 2016

Crimes of the South African Police Service

“Police unable to resolve 80 Murders?”
80 unresolved murders haunt Knysna

KNYSNA NEWS - Question marks still hang over a great many unsolved Knysna murders since 2009. According to reliable information there are nearly 80 unsolved murders from the period 2009 to 2013.

It was also during this time that the controversial Emmerentia Witbooi (31) murder took place.

On July 27, 2012, Witbooi disappeared from her parents' home in Charlie Levack Street, Hornlee. The search for Witbooi evoked much emotion among community members who claimed at the time that the police were not doing enough to find her.
Her naked body was eventually found in Chapel Street near the Hornlee Clinic on August 5 that year, after family and community members and Knysna's executive mayor Georlene Wolmarans mobilised themselves in the search for the missing mother.

It was alleged that only once there had been a public outcry and when Wolmarans demanded action be taken immediately, did officers of the Knysna Fire Brigade and Law Enforcement start to help with the extensive search in and around Hornlee for a woman who would sadly turn out to be another murder victim.

Nobody was ever convicted for Witbooi's death, even after people close to her told the Western Cape minister of Police, Dan Plato that the killer was known to the police. Plato met with community members and relatives of other unsolved murder victims in Knysna on March 13, 2014.
Wolmarans also attended the meeting in Knysna, where the traumatised family members expressed their concerns about the police's investigations into the unsolved murder cases.


Hendrik Luiters, Emmerentia Witbooi's stepfather.
Read more about this in Thursday's Knysna-Plett Herald, and online.
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