Family of murdered teen Sinoxolo 'angry' with cops

Cape Town - Family members of murdered Khayelitsha teen Sinoxolo Mafevuka have said they are angry with the police for not taking the 19-year-old’s murder seriously enough when compared to the investigation into Franziska Blöchliger's murder, reports said on Friday.

Sinoxolo Mafevuka was found last Tuesday in a communal toilet four minutes from her home in Khayelitsha’s SST Section, News24 reported.

She was half-naked and was seemingly strangled to death.

Her body was found by a commuter who said her head was in the toilet bowl, with the rest of her body facing the door. Her clothes were found in the cistern.

Sinoxolo’s relatives said they had been given no information on her case for over a week, with police only following up after a visit from the deputy police minister to the area.

Parallels have been drawn with Sinoxolo’s case and the highly-publicised murder of Cape Town teen Franziska Blöchliger in Tokai Forest earlier this week.

Mafevuka’s cousin Dan Mtana told the Cape Times that the family saw the Tokai murder reports on television, and were angry that the police “focused all their energy” on that case, but allegedly ignored Sinoxolo's, the daily reported on Friday.

“We are very sad, because Sinoxolo died last week. They only came today [Thursday] because the minister was here. We don’t know how she died even, she didn’t have any scars to show what happened to her. She just died. We maybe think she was strangled,” Mtana also told News24 on Thursday.

Mtana said to Eyewitness News that residents of the area in Harare, Khayelitsha are now living in fear knowing the killer is still out there.

Deputy minister’s visit

Deputy Police Minister Maggie Sotyu visited the area on Thursday, and asked the question, “When is it going to be Sinoxolo’s turn for justice?”

The minister received a briefing from the Khayelitsha Cluster, where she demanded to know what was happening with the case.

“Everywhere you go here, the focus is on Franziska. When is it going to be Sinoxolo’s turn? I am a mother of children of the same age as Franziska and Sinoxolo, you can’t expect me to sit in my office and say the police have it handled,” she said.

She said it was annoying that it seemed the police were only focused on one case, and had made three arrests less than 48 hours after Blöchliger died.

Khayelitsha cluster commander Major General Johan Brand said the police were doing everything they could to find the person who killed Mafevuka.

Brand was raked over the coals by Sotyu on Thursday for the "shoddy police work", News24 reported.