Mpumalanga Police Respond to Gardee Family Criticisms After Allegedly Failing to Discover Hillary Was Shot

• Mpumalanga police defended themselves after the Gardee family claimed that they did not realise Hillary was shot in the head
• Mpumalanga Police Spokesperson Col Donald Mdhluli refuted the allegations, saying several officers are investigating the murder case and have been fully aware of the gunshot injury from the beginning
• The EFF and the family spokesperson Sinawo Tambo called the police out over their “incompetence” for supposdly not knowing Hillary's cause of death

MPUMALANGA - Provincial police have refuted allegations that they were unaware of the bullet wound found on Hillary Gardee. According to police, Gardee was found with only bruises on her body, however, a forensics team later revealed that she had been shot in the back of the head.

The police also claim that they disclosed the information to the family. The 28-year-old was found murdered on Tuesday and was allegedly shot execution-style.

Read also

Students at Nelspruit guest house dubbed a “house of horror” evacuated following Hillary Gardee's murder

Mpumalanga police spokesperson Col Donald Mdhluli said that a team made up of various levels of officers has been put together to investigate the matter by Lt-Gen Semakaleng Daphney Manamela. He told TimesLIVE that police need space to investigate the “gruesome murder”.

Speaking yesterday outside the Gardee family home, the Economic Freedom Fighters and the family spokesperson Sinawo Tambo called the police out for their “incompetence”, saying that they had not investigated the crime scene properly. According to The Citizen, Tambo added that the crime scene was contaminated and said that the family is concerned about whether the police are taking Gardee’s death seriously or not.

South Africans up in arms over investigations

Many people have taken to social media to criticise the police over their handling of the Hillary Gardee murder:

Read also

New information in court documents indicates plot to kill Hillary Gardee was planned months in advance

@SenwabjalaMoso5 wrote:

“It must be compulsory for all shopping malls and complexes to have surveillance cameras. All major road intersections must be installed with hidden surveillance cameras. Our intelligence must see to it that hidden cameras are placed where they think crime is prevalent.”

@Bantu_Istan posted:

“So why did they contaminate the crime scene? Why wasn't the family told?”

@Cyps22 commented:

“Bloody incompetent again they said she had some injuries to her head.”

@Thabang84yesno added:

“I was so disturbed seeing the Minister of police inside the crime scene.”

@oscar_phumlani stated:

“But they were supposed to tell the family, not the nation. They're now lying.”

EFF members visit Gardee family home, claim that Hillary was shot and say they have little faith in SAPS

In a related matter, Briefly News also reported members of the Economic Freedom Fighters visited the Gardee family to pay their respects following the death of 28-year-old Hillary, whose body was found in Mbombela on Tuesday 3 May. The political party’s leadership, including Julius Malema, paid their respects to the family.

Hillary was the daughter of former EFF Secretary-General Godrich Gardee and went missing on Friday. According to the EFF and family Spokesperson Sinawo Thambo, Gardee was allegedly shot in the back of her head. He claims that the police allegedly did not notice the gunshot wound when they moved the body from the crime scene.

Source: Briefly News