The perpetrator is believed to be a boyfriend, who terrorised the family for a long time, to the point that he would take her to Selebi-Phikwe and spend days beating and threatening to kill her. The police have denied knowledge of previous reports of harassment, which the family claims had been lodged, putting the agency’s vision “to be a law enforcement agency of repute” into disrepute.
The agency needs to guard against such incidents by sticking to its mission of providing “professional policing service, in partnership with the community” in all its aspects of policing and crime prevention. However, what is more disturbing is the fact that the two parental figures – the mother and the grandmother – allowed a man to physically and sexually abuse an underage girl for a long time before he cut her life short. It is even more disheartening to learn that the grandmother at some point tried to stop the relationship with suggestions that the man should bring his parents over for talks. Such scenarios are appalling in the least that a child is exploited by a man with no good intention for her, but these things happen everyday, especially in rural areas where poverty is rife.
