South Africa’s poor crime-solving record is in the spotlight with the case of murdered Tokai teenager Franziska Blöchliger‚ with a top school executive joining criticism of the South African Police Service. Thomas Knemeyer‚ the chairman of the board of trustees of the Constantia Waldorf School where Franziska was in Grade 10‚ commended her father’s actions and the Westlake community for assisting the police in tracking down the suspected killers‚ but questioned why it took an extraordinary effort for an arrest.Supporters of slain Tokai teen share family’s painFranziska Blöchliger‚ 16‚ was murdered while on a short jog through Cape Town’s Tokai forest on Monday afternoon. Her father Florian announced he would pay a reward of R50‚000 for information that could lead to her killers. He has increased this to R100‚000.Four men charged with rape and murder of Tokai teen remanded in custodyOn Friday‚ four suspects were brought before the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court. The breakthrough came after police acted on information received from community members and tracked down information from her stolen iPhone.“Here we are (at court) only four days after the murder‚ which is very unusual for South Africa’s justice system‚" Knemeyer told TMG Digital."It shows you it can be done.“We have 47 murders a day in this country‚ many like that poor girl in Khayelitsha. The police are almost inactive. It takes them a week or longer to notify the parents and relatives."However‚ if a father like Florian comes along and pushes the envelope‚ hard‚ puts out a warrant‚ doubles the warrant the next day‚ then you realise we still have very good cops on this country‚ who can make it happen.“And we have many great people in this country‚ like the women of Westlake. That’s why we’re here in court today. Hopefully the evidence will be strong enough to prevent them getting bail. That would be a disaster‚” he said. The case was remanded to March 18 for the bail application to be heard.Knemeyer’s remarks come a day after Deputy Police Minister Maggie Sotyu accused Western Cape police of being racially biased‚ saying that the murder of Blochliger was “getting attention” while the murder of 19-year-old Sinoxolo Mafevuka‚ from Khayelitsha‚ was not.Tokai jogger’s death becomes racial spatMafevuka’s half-naked body was found in a communal toilet in Town Two‚ Khayelitsha‚ on Tuesday last week. Shocked residents said her face had been covered with a jacket and her clothes stuffed in a cistern. No arrests have been made.Sotyu visited the Khayelitsha Police Station on Thursday to get an update on the investigation.“If you guys communicated this [Mafevuka] case [to media] the way you are paying attention to the other [Blochliger] case‚ I wouldn’t be here today‚” she said at a meeting with senior staff and detectives from the Khayelitsha policing cluster who are working on Mafevuka’s case.“I wouldn’t have received emails and telephone calls in my office if the community knew about what you are telling us. The problem is it is only yourselves who know what is happening. Whereas when something happens in another area‚ with another race‚ you run to the media and say this is what is happening‚ as if you owe a certain race an excuse‚” she asserted.Provincial police communications head Brigadier Novela Potelwa said the fact that newspaper front pages had the Tokai murder as their headlines was not something police could control.The problem is much larger than these two cases‚ however.The SA Institute of Race Relations’ South African Survey‚ issued last year‚ revealed that prosecutors reject more than three-quarters of cases the police bring to them‚ amongst other reasons‚ because of shoddy police work and incomplete case dockets.Criminals get away with itInstitute crime researcher Kerwin Lebone said the IRR had reviewed the conviction rate for serious crimes over nine years. “Arrests annually average 1.3 million people‚ with an estimated 29% of these resulting in criminal convictions‚” he said.Lebone recommended that police officers needed more training and overworked detectives needed lighter case loads...