Community wants to know why Courtney was killed
[caption id="attachment_205490" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Community members outside the Goodwood Magistrate’s Court where Courtney Pieters' alleged killer is expected to appear
Picture: Esa Alexander[/caption]
“WE WANT ANSWERS.”
That’s the message on one of the posters brandished by angry residents from Elsies River waiting for murder accused Mortimer Saunders to appear at the Goodwood Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
Saunders stands accused of raping and killing three-year-old Courtney Pieters earlier this month.
Saunders on Wednesday appeared calm in the dock‚ dressed in a blue t-shirt and black jacket. The case was postponed to August 24 for further investigation.
Not only was Saunders a tenant at the Pieters family’s modest Cape Flats home‚ he was also her father’s best friend‚ according to family spokesperson Roegchanda Pascoe.
Little Courtney’s story has shocked the nation and prompted a visit to the family by President Jacob Zuma last week.
Zuma said it was one of the saddest things he had ever heard.
“That a man who stays here can rape the child‚ kill the child in the bedroom ... and break every bone to make the child fit in a plastic bag ... It shows something has gone wrong with society‚” he said.
About 200 people from the community gathered outside the court on a chilly Wednesday morning.
Police had to block the entrance to the courtroom where Courtney’s visibly distraught parents — Juanita Pieters and Aron Fourie — took a seat.
More than 10 police officers were deployed to the court room.
- TMG Digital/TimesLIVE
