PODCAST | A chain of failures: the murder of Poppie van der Merwe

On October 25 2017, a paramedic watched as a bakkie screeched to a halt in the parking lot of Brits Provincial Hospital. A man ran towards him with the limp body of a young girl in his arms.

The child, three-year-old “Poppie” van der Merwe, was beyond saving, but it would be this moment that would set in motion the wheels of justice for the years of torment and abuse the girl and her siblings had suffered.

Listen to the story here: 

As the true horror surrounding Poppie’s death unravelled in the media, South Africans demanded to know how and why the girl had been so significantly failed by the system.

In episode 75 of True Crime South Africa, we explore the devastating circumstances that this child, and many like her, live through on a daily basis and why so many people looked the other way.

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E-mail the show: wordsmith195@gmail.com