In October last year, South Africans were shocked by news of the kidnapping of four young brothers on their way to school in Limpopo.
The incident captured the nation’s imagination, not only because of the distressing nature of the crime but that the Moti brothers were the latest in what appeared to be a rising number of kidnappings in the country.
Not withstanding the bizarre secrecy by police and the family on basic information about the kidnapping, for weeks we witnessed an outpouring of sympathy and public support for the family.
On November 10, the children were found apparently wondering the streets of a Limpopo community after they were released unharmed by the kidnappers.
More questions arose. The most important of which being where were they?
This week police spokesperson Lt-Col Robert Netshiunda told the media that the family had applied for a court interdict against the police to bar them from interviewing the children as part of their investigation.
At the time of writing, details of the interdict were yet to be verified as police again inexplicably held their cards close to their chests.
If the family indeed sought to bar the police from speaking to the children, the most obvious question would be why?
Furthermore, such action, whatever its motivation, would fuel long-running speculation that the Motis may have known much more about the circumstances of the kidnapping than the public were made to believe.
It is not usual that victims of crime would effectively derail an investigation that seeks to find answers about the perpetrators of such a crime.
Such action, if motivated by sinister motives, would amount to an obstruction of justice which itself is a crime.
We call on the police to exercise a greater responsibility of transparency with regard to this case. Whatever the circumstances, a crime occurred for which justice must be done and importantly, be seen to be done.
The use of public resources to find these boys places a responsibility on the authorities to account publicly on what appears to be an attempt to derail their efforts.
If such attempts are sinister, they must be exposed and more importantly, those behind them should be held accountable.
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