Zavier hailed at packed funeral
Held up as an example of yet another loss of innocent life, 17-year-old gang violence victim Zavier “Zenna” Jassen was laid to rest after a moving funeral service at the Uniting Reformed Church in Gelvandale in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
The body of the Gelvandale High School grade 11 pupil was found with a gunshot wound in his head in Sagard Road in Helenvale late on Wednesday October 3.
The teenager, who did not have any links to gangs in the northern areas, was gunned down a short distance from the notorious Kobus Road.
With a police presence on the street outside, the Gelvandale church was packed with family, friends, fellow pupils and community members on Saturday, where DA MPL for education Edmund van Vuuren was also in attendance.
Zavier’s coffin, adorned with yellow and white flowers, along with a collage of photographs of the teenager, took centre stage in the church.
In a service marked by poignant and sorrowful moments, poems and songs, Zavier was hailed as an ever-smiling and school-loving teenager, who loved his takkies, his clothes, his family, grandparents and friends.
“He chose his friends, his friends did not choose him – which is a lesson that our youth should all learn,” one speaker said before the youth rose “in salute” of Zavier.
“He also loved kids ... he climbed into everyone’s hearts,” the speaker said.
Carol-Ann Jassen, who jointly recited a poem with her husband Sebastian, said: “I am so proud of my son today. But my heart is broken ...
“Thank you God that I had the privilege to have him. To lose someone so special is so hard to do. He left too early.”
The Rev Hendry Tromp said he had felt anger on hearing of Zavier’s death.
“I was cross to hear of another young body on our streets. I was cross to hear about yet another bloodstain on these streets.
“I was cross because our children are not safe on our streets ... I was cross because our communities are not together around this issue.
“I was cross because the blood of innocent children stains our streets,” Tromp said.
“These bloodstains confront all of us, individually and collectively, as a community.
“So what have we become as a community?
“The devil shames us with these bloodstains.”
But Tromp also offered the community hope. He said crime had a “sell-by date” and assured them “we will never give up” in the fight against gangsterism and crime.
He invited them all to attend a prayer rally against gangsterism at the Helenvale Resource Centre on Sunday.
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