The patchy police approach to investigating serious crimes has been thrust into the spotlight by the murders of two Cape Town teenagers, one in middle-class Tokai, the other in the township of Khayelitsha.The Social Justice Coalition, the NGO that persuaded Western Cape premier Helen Zille to set up an inquiry into policing in the township in 2012, and a school executive criticised the police this week over the inconsistency.The Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry, headed by retired Constitutional Court justice Kate O'Regan and former National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli, found that the township has the highest rates of murder and sexual offences in the country, but police there are so incompetent that they cannot even answer the phone.Franziska Blöchliger, 16, was attacked on Monday while jogging in Lower Tokai Park. Police used the signal from her stolen cellphone to track down the suspects within 36 hours, and less than four days after the murder they appeared in court.On March 2, Sinoxolo Mafevuka, 19, was found dead - half-naked, with her head shoved into a toilet bowl - about 150m from her home in Khayelitsha.There have been no arrests, and her cousin Sibongiseni Nzima told the Sunday Times that police took statements from the family only after Deputy Police Minister Maggie Sotyu's intervention on Thursday.Sotyu gave the police top brass a tongue-lashing and said their handling of the case could be read to mean that "black lives are not valuable".Nzima said on Friday: "We have not had any meaningful help from the state so far. We heard about the Tokai case, which seems to have received more prominence than ours. Maybe it is because the other girl's parents are wealthy and we live in Khayelitsha, or the police apartheid treatment still continues."All we need is for the perpetrator to be brought to book. That is the last gift we can give to Sinoxolo so that she can rest in peace."Axolile Notywala, the Social Justice Coalition's head of local government programmes, said the two cases proved the commission of inquiry's findings. The NGO will march to Harare police station in Khayelitsha on Tuesday to demand that the investigation into Mafevuka's murder be accelerated."We have been saying this for a long time: townships, including Khayelitsha, Nyanga and others, need more policing resources than places like Tokai," said Notywala."Sinoxolo's case is just one example of many ... in Khayelitsha where the investigation takes weeks and even months before suspects are arrested." However, if a father like Florian pushes the envelope hard, you realise have very good cops Notywala's sentiments were echoed outside the Wynberg Magistrate's Court on Friday by Thomas Knemeyer, chairman of the board of trustees at Constantia Waldorf School, where Franziska was in Grade 10.He commended the Westlake community for assisting the police in tracking down the suspected killers, but questioned why it took an extraordinary effort for an arrest."Here we are only four days after the murder, which is very unusual for South Africa's justice system," said Knemeyer."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 [Blöchliger] comes along and pushes the envelope hard, puts out a reward, doubles the reward the next day - then you realise we still have very good cops in 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."Khayelitsha cluster commander Major-General Johan Brand said cases differed depending on the evidence available."We are building a case based on forensic evidence and we are seeking the assistance of the community and informers to come forward with information," said Brand."What I can assure the Khayelitsha community is that we don't treat investigations differently in Khayelitsha than in any other area. We will give our best in this investigation as well."Dr Johan Burger, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, said the police work had been impressive in the Tokai case."They also sound very confident that they have enough evidence to link those suspects to the crime, so it will go a long way to improve the image of the police, which at the moment isn't very good," he said.The investigative shortcomings in Mafevuka' s case would create the belief that the police gave preferential treatment to certain cases. "But at the same time, one needs to look at individual cases. Not every case is conducive to early breakthrough," he added.nombembep@sundaytimes.co.za, aphiwed@sundaytimes.co.za..