Pretoria – Three men arrested in connection with the brutal murder of Hillary Gardee, the daughter former EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee, are set to appear before the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court, Mpumalanga, this morning.
EFF national spokesperson Sinawo Tambo said the leadership of the Julius Malema-led opposition party will be accompanying the Gardee family to court at 9am.
On Sunday, police in Mpumalanga said two more suspects had been nabbed in connection with the Hillary Gardee murder case.
Mpumalanga police spokesperson Colonel Donald Mdhluli confirmed that two more suspects had been arrested, joining the initial suspect.
The two additional suspects were apprehended in Nelspruit between Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday morning.
The first suspect, a 39-year-old man, was arrested on Friday in Schoemansdal (Nkomazi).
Mpumalanga provincial commissioner of police, Lieutenant-General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela said: “This is encouraging and as we indicated that there were other people of interest that we were following and interviewing. Through our investigation, which is still proceeding, we were able to come out with information that we fully believe the two are the right suspects.”
Police Minister Bheki Cele who attended 28-year-old Gardee’s funeral on Saturday, had alluded to fact that the people of interest in the Gardee murder case were individuals who had political affiliations, and some were prominent business people in the local community of Mbombela.
Hillary was found dead in bushes 45km outside Mbombela on Tuesday by passers-by who were on their way to work.
Hillary Indira Gardee was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1994.
At the time of her death, she was a student at the University of South Africa, studying IT part-time while running her own IT business.
“Her kindness and generosity was most evident in her commitment to adopt and care for a 3-year-old child, who by the grace of God was spared on the day of Hillary’s abduction. She looked after the child as if she were her own, an inspiring act for a woman of such a young age,” the EFF said in its tribute.
IOL