Four-year-old Tamia Botha was laid to rest in Paarl East in the Western Cape today.
The Action Society team attended the funeral of Mia, who went missing last Sunday and was found dead 24 hours later at a nearby school.
Hundreds of people gathered at her house and for the service at the church. Residents young and old formed a human chain along the streets from the Botha home to the church where the service was held.
Ian Cameron, director of community safety at Action Society, said the community will not rest until justice is served. “What really stood out for me recently, was what the mother told one of the ladies that went with to fetch the death certificate. When she touched her child’s body she said: ‘My baby, Mia, you four years old and you already have a death certificate’. It really makes me sick to think of that,” he said.
Cameron recently spoke out about the tourist safety comments of police minister Bheki Cele and tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu. “I don’t know in which South Africa Lindiwe Sisulu and Bheki Cele live, but their lies about South Africa being a safe place for tourists astounds me.”
The team from Personal Safety and Action Society has held two personal safety training sessions for community safety ambassadors in Delft in Cape Town. “We want to empower communities to be safer. In the last 24 hours, several people have been shot in Delft – which is a huge concern,” he said.
