MEC Macie condemns recent incidences of rape and killing of young Mpumalanga girls

Mpumalanga MEC for Community Safety, Security and Liaison, Mr. Jackie Macie has condemned the recent incidences of crime involving three young people whereby two of them were raped and one raped and murdered in Tonga and Hendrina respectively.

 

According to the police reports, the first incident happened on the 2nd of September 2024, where two learners aged 16 and 17 were reportedly raped by an armed suspect on their way to school. The suspect is still at large.

 

In the other incident, a body of an 11-year-old girl was discovered with stab wounds, and police believe that she might have been raped too by the suspect. She was reported missing and later found 100 metres from the suspect’s shack.

 

Macie is distressed about the incidences, saying that the law must take its course to ensure the prosecution of the doers of these gruesome crimes.

He applauds the police for the swift arrest of the suspect linked to the death of the 11-year-old child and calls on the police to work around the clock to ensure the arrest of the suspect alleged to have raped the two girls from Tonga village.

 

“We cannot fail these young people as government. We need to do all that we can to ensure that their aggressors face the full might of law. The two young people were on their way to school to study when the ordeal took place. Now their future might be affected due to this traumatic experience.

 

“These perpetrators of crime have no place in our communitie. We cannot have people who, instead of protecting our children, torment them,” he says.

 

Meanwhile, the MEC says that the deployment of Crime Prevention Wardens will strengthen the existing policing structures to curb crimes and locate wanted crime suspects throughout the province.

 

“These wardens are expected to assist the police deal with crime quicker. Most of these perpetrators of crimes are known in communities, and sometimes communities are afraid to speak. We believe that the deployment of these CPWs will strengthen the turnaround time of solving criminal cases,” he adds.

 

Ends.