Slain Palesa Malatji’s family feel failed by Soshanguve police

Schooling was suspended on Monday after pupils took to the street over the killing.

Malatji did not return home from attending extra lessons at the Ntsako Secondary School last Thursday.

“From tomorrow when you attend after school classes you will be accompanied by patrollers to go home. That is to make sure that all of you are safe. The police have committed full-time visibility in schools from now on," Chiloane told dozens of pupils from various schools in the area.

The teenager’s uncle Thabiso Malatji said they went searching for Palesa when his son told him that another boy in the neighbourhood said he had been startled by noises in the nearby bush.

Malatji stressed that it was out of character for Palesa to be late, prompting him to approach the police.

“I went to the police station and asked them for a van to escort me so we can go looking for her, I thought maybe she had collapsed somewhere. But Saps failed me and told me they don’t have a van around 8 pm. They didn’t help me.”

Malatji said he went on a lone search for his niece checking the school and local clinic before the police came with a van around midnight before they made the grim discovery.

The family has described Palesa, who is the eldest of three children, as a disciplined pupil who dreamed of being a pharmacist.

Her uncle said Palesa’s mother is devastated.

“My sister can’t do anything, she’s not coping. You can imagine if this was your child that you had carried for nine months and struggled for 12 years to take her through school [how you would feel].”

He said the family is waiting for the postmortem results for conclusive details of the crime but adds that the condition of the teenager’s body was found in suggests she was sexually violated and strangled.