'KILLER' ON THE LOOSE

Questions have arisen how a teen believed to be the convicted murderer of Suritha Alting, 28, was found robbing mense in Table View this month less than two years after he was sentenced. 

Brave Table View dad, Dave Walters, says he got a skrik when he was informed by investigators that the man who robbed him of his cellphone two weeks ago was in fact a "killer who slipped through the cracks". 

The 50-year-old man says Xolani du Preez and his accomplice were busted on 17 April after they entered his home. 

Walters explains: "I was at home playing Call of Duty and had left the gate open as I knew my son would probably leave around midnight to meet up with his girlfriend.

"I saw two males and initially thought they were my son’s friends, but then I saw they put their fingers on their lips and said shhh, I knew it was a break-in. The one grabbed my cellphone and they fled running in opposite directions." 

Walters and his son chased after the skelms and tracked the cellphone’s location as they alerted police.

First they arrested the accomplice who showed them he did not have the phone and started hunting Du Preez. Cops arrived on the scene along Blaauwberg Road and the Oppo cellphone was recovered. 

Walters adds: "I insisted on opening a criminal case and was not going to leave it like that." 

Police spokesperson Sergeant Wesley Twigg confirms the arrest and says: "Table View police registered a house robbery case for investigation on Thursday, 17 April 2025, in Hoorn Street, Table View.

"The suspects fled the scene with a cellular telephone worth R10 000. We can confirm that two males age 19 and 22 were arrested on Friday, 18 April 2025, and appeared in the Cape Town Magistrates Court." 

Walters said several days later he returned to Table View police station to thank cops for their work when he was called by detectives who revealed the identity of the suspect. 

He adds: “They told me that he is the guy who was convicted of killing the woman in Richwood. 

“According to that sentence, he was supposed to serve two years and 245 days at a juvenile facility and later eight years at an adult correctional facility. But somehow the killer just slipped through the cracks.”  

If Walters is to be believed, then the case he is referring to is that of slain Alting. 

In November 2023, Du Preez  was sentenced to two years and 245 days in a child youth care facility and eight years’ imprisonment in the Parow Regional Court after pleading guilty to Alting’s murder.

Du Preez, at the age of 16, robbed and stabbed Alting as she returned home from a restaurant in Richwood, Cape Town. He pleaded guilty to murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances under the Child Justice Act.

Department of Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo, however, couldn’t confirm whether the suspect is indeed the same Xolani du Preez and referred all questions to the NPA and the Department of Justice saying Du Preez appears as a remand detainee and not a sentenced detainee on their systems. 

He could not clarify if Du Preez was taken into custody after being convicted and sentenced. 

According to text messages received on Walters’ phone he was informed by police that Du Preez will return to court on 23 May.