The South African Police Service (SAPS) continues to give Action Society and the parents of murdered four-year-old Mia Botha the silent treatment while disclosing sensitive information to the media. According to Action Society this amounts to gross misconduct and negligence in her murder investigation.
“We have been doing everything in our power to highlight this case and get the investigation going again, but all our complaints have fallen on deaf ears. The Action Society team believes that this gross misconduct and negligence by the police is a violation of Mia’s family’s right to receive justice for her brutal murder,” said Action Society’s Kaylynn Palm. Ultimately, Mia’s family are the ones suffering the most. They have been desperate for answers since her murder on 26 September, 2022, more than 900 days ago. They are heartbroken and the police have failed to provide them with the minimum feedback. We had to be the ones to deliver the news that the investigation was moved to the cold case unit, after reading about it in a newspaper article.
In February of this year, Action Society sent an urgent letter to the Public Protector calling for an immediate inquiry into the SAPS’ repeated failures in Mia’s investigation. We requested that the Public Protector investigate the SAPS handling of the case and determine the reasons for the delays in processing forensic evidence and why they have not acted on existing DNA matches. Secondly, we asked for accountability from the police regarding their lack of communication and transparency with Mia’s family. Lastly, we recommend corrective measures to ensure that SAPS fulfils its constitutional and statutory duties. The Public Protector acknowledged receipt of Action Society’s request.
A similar letter was sent to the Portfolio Committee on Police in the same month, but this letter has gone unanswered so far.
“Many efforts in the past by Action Society have proven that cooperation between civil society and police can lead to results, which makes their unwillingness in this case even more frustrating. We will continue to put pressure on the police until we get Mia’s family the answers they deserve and Action Society wants to make it abundantly clear that we refuse to relinquish our efforts into getting justice for Mia,” concluded Palm.
