JOHANNESBURG - As the Malatji family bids a bitter farewell to 17-year-old Palesa, teachers union Sadtu is calling on communities to play an active role in improving their own safety.
Malatji was raped and killed on her way from school last week.
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Mugwena Maluleke, Sadtu general secretary, said, "These people don't come from heaven and then just fly in and commit these particular crimes, they live within the community and community must expose them, so that then we're able to root out crime in our society, because we can't live in these high walls forever, we can't live with these electrical fences forever."
"We've got to be able to say: there comes a time where we cannot take as a community, so community safety, we need to be able to form structures, strict committees, which can be able to say let's help the law enforcement agencies."
"But also, the minister that has been elected by us as the people, we must hold him accountable."
"If a crime has been committed, we need to see apprehension, we need to see that is done for the people of the Soshanguve, for the Malatji family and many other families that are affected by this particular thing, we cannot wait for too long before we see justice."