Nine years after Shasha-Lee November the people who searched for her say investigators should have paid attention closer to home.
They say the case had many holes in it, and the six-year-old would likely not have been kidnapped had social workers intervened sooner.
Shasha-Lee mysteriously disappeared on 3 May, 2015, in Groenall Walk, Hanover Park.
At the weekend, family and friends held a vigil in memory of the little girl.
This week, retired colonel, Dawood Laing, who was the Station Commander of Grassy Park SAPS at the time of Shasha-Lee’s kidnapping, as well as the girl’s sister, Jasmine Harris, and Saafia Samuels, who led the search for the little girl, said more should have been done to look at suspects closer to home, after the child was last seen walking with a man in the area.
Laing says Shasha-Lee’s case had many holes, including the fact that her parents, Sandra and Calvin November, were never properly interrogated.
He says both parents were drug addicts and both have since died.
Laing explains: “The case was registered as a missing person case.
“Later it was changed to kidnapping as community members gave statements that they saw this kid being taken away by an unknown person.
“The major lessons that were learned were that SAPS, the Community Policing Forum, Missing Persons, Pink Ladies and NGO structures have depended too much on the missing child and not on the circumstances of the home, that was critical in the investigation.”
It wasn’t lost on Laing that there were many similarities with Shasha-Lee’s case and the recent disappearance with Joshlin Smith in Saldanha.
In reference to Joshlin’s case, he says: “The parents were only later questioned thoroughly, [something] which had to be done instantaneously,”
In addition, vital information such as the detective’s telephone number had not been placed on the pamphlet.
He adds: “Community members stormed to the address of the victim and information was given of which some never came through to SAPS.
“I also think that the Department of Social Development failed her.
“There were reports to them of child neglect and drug abuse by the parents. Their proper investigation could have prevented this incident.”
Shasha-Lee’s sister, Jasmine Harris, says she also called for police to look for clues at Shasha-Lee’s home, but did not want to comment further.
Saafia Samuels of G-Force and formerly of Women 2 Women, who had been part of the first team of volunteers to search for the child, believes vital evidence should be revisited.
Samuels says: “A child witness at the time claimed he saw a family member walking with [Shasha-Lee] the night before she was reported missing.
“The mother confirmed that the child did not come home that night and she only learnt in the morning that her child is not home.
“The night before they were partying and drugging... and Shasha-Lee told her she was going to sleep at a neighbour’s house.
“The neighbour did not know about this and so the stories went on that it was someone else.
“One neighbour even said at one stage she heard the father [Calvin] saying, ‘moenie vir meisie vat nie’. Meisie was the name Sasha was called.”
Police spokesperson, Captain FC van Wyk, says the case is still under investigation: “There are no developments to report to the media at this stage.”
Bianca van Aswegen of Missing Children SA says they continue to share Shasha-Lee’s poster in the hopes that she could be found.
The Department of Social Development said it will look into the query sent by the Daily Voice regarding the claims of neglect.
genevieve.heunis@inl.co.za