From kidnappings, child murders and an attack on Parliament, crimes that shocked the province and country were reported in 2022.
The year 2022 began with a bang with the alleged arson attack on Parliament. This was later exacerbated by more than 4 000 kidnappings in the Western Cape, family massacres at the apparent hands of teenage relatives, a mob justice attack on an e-hailing driver and horrific child killings and police murders.
On January 2, 2022, the National Assembly Chamber and sections of the Old Assembly Building were destroyed in a fire. A homeless man, Zandile Christmas Mafe, was charged with housebreaking with the intent to commit arson, terrorism, theft and a separate charge of arson.
A murder sent shock waves through the small town of Klawer on February 4, 2022, when the dismembered remains of Jerobejin van Wyk, 13, were found in a dam on the property of Daniel Smit. It is alleged the child and a friend had been picking mangoes in Smit’s yard when he spotted them. Smit is awaiting a bed space at Valkenberg psychiatric hospital.
Releasing the second-quarter crime statistics, Police Minister Bheki Cele revealed that for 2022/2023, more than 4 000 counts of kidnapping were reported to the police between July and September 2022.
To date, the case of 2-month-old Kai-Isha Meniers, who was kidnapped by a woman outside Shoprite in Bishop Lavis on April 30, remains unsolved.
Shireen Essop, 32, vanished on May 23 while driving along Varkensvlei Road in Philippi and was found on June 11 in Klipfontein Mission Station thanks to a vigilant neighbourhood watch and was unharmed. A 28-year-old suspect was arrested after allegedly being found with her belongings. This was followed by the case of Abira Dekhta, 8, who had been sitting in the front seat of her school transport vehicle in Gatesville on November 4 when she was snatched by armed men and was found alive on November 14 in Khayelitsha following a tip-off. Seven suspects have been charged.
It was the news that rocked the Western Cape when e-hailing driver Abongile Mafalala, a driver for Bolt, was mistaken for a kidnapper while he was on his way to fetch clients in Parkwood on May 31 and was robbed by two suspects, beaten with a spade by a mob, bitten by a dog and set alight on May 31. The 11 people accused of his murder have been charged.
A former police officer, Jean-Paul Malgas, 38, allegedly went on a shooting spree at Somerset Hospital where he shot and killed a police officer and two patients.
A manhunt was launched for Yanga Nyalara in May following mass shootings in Khayelitsha. He was soon arrested together with Wandile Tofile, Manelisi Ngumla and Lundi Zweni. They are facing charges relating to the murders between May 25, 2021, and May 8, 2022, in Khayelitsha Site C.
Family murders allegedly at the hands of teenagers made headlines after Cassidy Hartzenberg, 18, was charged with the September 9 murder of his aunt, Magistrate Romay van Rooyen, inside her home in Marina Da Gama.
Police arrested an 18-year-old relative of three people who were murdered in Bishop Lavis on December 14. Elmoline Kemp, her son Peter, and her sister Shireen Isaacs were discovered in their backyard.
Kuils River was rocked after Hilton van Zyl shot and killed his wife, Anastacia, and their daughter Cassidy inside their home on September 25.
