Pretoria - The family of slain taxi driver Jabu Baloyi, who was gunned down in 2019 while confronting a drug dealer, wants Police Minister Bheki Cele to account for delays in arresting those behind their brother’s death.
On Saturday morning, the family and a group of taxi drivers hosted a commemoration in honour of Jabu outside Pretoria’s long-distance taxi rank, where they set up a symbolic tombstone for the deceased.
The day marked exactly three years since he was killed in the Pretoria CBD for fighting against the scourge of drug abuse.
Those in attendance sang hymns and laid flowers at a symbolic tombstone.
During the sombre occasion, the family announced that they would meet the police minister today to express their frustration with the manner in which the police were handling the case.
Jabu’s brother, George Baloyi, said: “As the family, we are upset that three years on there has not been justice served for my brother. We hurt and we feel the SAPS has failed us.”
He said initially about 20 police officers were working on the murder case “and now it is left with only one investigating officer, but there has been no breakthrough”.
“It seems like none of the police is willing to follow up on Jabu’s case,” he said.
In desperation to find closure for Jabu’s grisly death, the family ended up making calls to the police minister’s office, complaining that there seems to be nothing happening on the side of the police.
“We want the minister to tell us what is happening with the case. We are going to meet the police minister today because we want to hear from him as to why he had never shown up to the family together with his team of police since Jabu’s death.
“The president has reached out to us, the late Jessie Duarte and Ace Magashule, but he has never visited our family,” George said.
He also lamented the fact that the problem of drugs was getting out of hand.
Speaking on behalf of taxi operators, Groote Sithole said: “We are still saddened by Jabu’s passing and the circumstances surrounding it. We previously asked the president (Cyril Ramaphosa) to be given permission to go into town and rid our streets of drugs. If they can give us a chance, we can clean up this city in 10 minutes.”
Three years ago, taxi operators were up in arms over Jabu’s cold-blooded killing by a drug dealer allegedly selling drugs to young people in Pretoria.
They shut down the CBD for numerous days and torched numerous buildings they suspected of being hotspots for drug dealing in the capital city and called on the police to bring the perpetrators to book.
Pretoria News