Cape Forum welcomes sentence of Tazné van Wyk’s killer

The Cape Forum welcomes the nine life sentences with which the Cape Town High Court punished the murderer of Tazné van Wyk today. However, the punishment does not compensate for the fact that the killer was on parole at the time of his monstrous attack on the eight-year-old Tazné. The state must accept responsibility for this.

Tazné’s death should also be a wake-up call to politicians that policing is not a toy with which to gain votes. Policing should guarantee the safety of children in particular, and this is not currently happening. The best we can hope for is that policing powers are devolved from the control of Minister Bheki Cele to the Western Cape, a cause for which the Cape Forum is campaigning.