#CourtneyPieters: Mom wants to know ‘why’

By Rusana Philander | IOL |

All Courtney Pieters’s mom wants to know of the three year old’s killer is “why”.

Still reeling from the rape and murder of her daughter, Juanita Pieters said it has been a difficult few weeks for her.

She wants to know from her daughter’s alleged killer why he did it.

Last week, Mortimer Saunders, 40, appeared in the Goodwood Magistrate’s Court for the murder and rape of the little girl.

She went missing on May 4 and her body was discovered on May 12, the day before Mothers Day.

Pieters is still traumatised by her daughter’s death.

“Because we expected to find her alive, these couple of weeks have been bad for me. To think that I will never see my daughter again. I don’t know how I am going to cope. The man who has been arrested for her murder is someone we knew. I still can’t believe this. I don’t think that any mother gets over the death of a child. Just on Saturday I saw my child being buried and I had to say good bye to her, forever. It is very hard to cope with her death.”

Joanie Fredericks from the Mitchells Plain Crisis Forum said they are assisting the family with counselling.

“Her tragic death has hit her family really hard. I haven’t known Courtney but she crept deep into my heart, where she will forever have a special place. She lined out whole streets and got people to walk to her grave site. She reminded us what humanity truly means when she brought whole communities together. She got people off their couches from every single community,” Fredericks said.

Danie Du Plessis, secretary of the Elsies River Community Policing Forum (CPF), said the community is still in shock.

“Her death has moved the whole community. It has shown that communities should start working together. We also welcome the fact that Elsies River will be getting a satellite police station because we do not have enough police officers,” du Plessis said.