GunFacts South Africa - Getting Real about Guns!

By Daily News Reporter

The family of five-year-old Dillon Meiring, shot dead in a botched hijacking at an N1 garage near Kraaifontein, in Cape Town, at the weekend, hope to return home to Oudtshoorn on Tuesday to prepare for the little boy's funeral.

Two men, aged 20 and 24, have been arrested on charges of murder and robbery. They are to appear in the Kuils River magistrate's court on Wednesday.

Dillon's father, April Meiring, said the family wanted to leave Cape Town with their son's body after they had formally identified it at the Tygerberg mortuary on Monday.

'I just want to go home and bury my baby'

"I just want to go home and bury my baby."

Meiring said, however, that the family's departure for home would depend on when the police finished their forensic tests on his car.

By on Monday afternoon, none of the government officials he had tried to contact at the weekend had been in touch with his family, he said.

Meiring said he had tried to contact Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool and Community Safety Minister Leonard Ramatlakane while they were at the presidential imbizo in Kraaifontein on Saturday, to no avail. They had not responded to his calls and emails, he said.

"I expected them at least to acknowledge us. They were talking about these issues - crime, child abuse and child murders. It was an opportunity to address an incident that occurred a few hours earlier.

'I wanted to raise the issue of crime and child abuse and child killings with them'

"I'm disappointed at members of the Western Cape government for refusing to address the issue at the weekend. I followed them to Kraaifontein and then Delft, but it was fruitless.

"I wanted to raise the issue of crime and child abuse and child killings with them."

Meiring said he hoped the provincial leadership would speed up the process of dealing with child murders.

"How many children must die before real action is taken? Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be a crime statistic."

The family is receiving counselling. His eight-year-old daughter, Charne, was the most severely traumatised, Meiring said.

"She is crying all the time. She doesn't want to be left alone in a room even with other family members around, she wants me or her mother to be around all the time."

Cathy Claassen, of the Kleinvlei police, is providing counselling services. She accompanied the family to the mortuary on Monday.

"They will need counselling and it is going to take time," she said. "We will liaise with our colleagues in Oudtshoorn to continue the service when the family leave Cape Town."

The family arrived in Cape Town on Friday to attend a funeral on Saturday.

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