Small justice for family of murdered Ayesha Kelly

IT WAS a small piece of justice for the family of 10-year-old Ayesha Kelly of Tafelsig who were celebrating Eid when her alleged killers heard they would be heading to trial in three months.

Cameron Julius and Chadwin Williams made an appearance at the Western Cape High Court yesterday where they are facing a charge of murder.

Pre-trial sessions have been running for months at the courthouse, leaving Ayesha’s family exhausted and anxious about the court case.

Finally they received the bitter-sweet news while attending the final pre-trial conference.

The family had just completed their holy month of Ramadaan and never missed a court date.

The State is set to prove Julius and Williams shot and killed Ayesha on the fatal evening of December 8, 2019 while she walked to a tuckshop in Oudekloof Road in Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain.

The shooting was allegedly between rival gangs, The Hard Livings and the Americans.

Julius is allegedly a member of the Hard Livings gang.

Previously, his family pleaded with the media that he was wrongfully accused and an order of the court at the lower courts, the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court, ruled his photograph may not be used.

This is because the State is set to prove that witnesses had seen Julius in Tafelsig on the evening Ayesha was shot.

Ayesha was in Grade 4 at Tafelsig Primary school and was her mother, Insaaf Kelly’s only daughter.

The matter was postponed to August 13 for trial.

Ayesha’s mother, Insaaf, said she was filled with emotions, both happy and sad: “I am very emotional, it is going to trial, I want justice for my daughter.

“I am looking forward to the trial to start and it is almost two years and I feel the case can be completed faster so that it can end all my pain because every time I have to see them.

“It was an emotional day, going to court on Eid and then to have an empty seat and then driving past her grave,” said Insaaf.

Fayrouz Kelly, 60, Ayesha’s grandmother, breathed a sigh of relief. A form of justice was served for the family when they heard the two men would be facing trial in August.

“As we walked outside of the courtroom, the State prosecutor, Miss Swartz confirmed that the case would be going to trial on August 13, finally. We were relieved,” she said.

“This morning, like many, I woke up early and had struggled to sleep like many nights after Ayesha died.

“We were counting down the days for this moment. When it was time for us to go to court this morning, I felt a huge weight on me,” said Fayrouz.

“This day is not feeling like labarang (Eid), I am sitting with my friends and family. I am missing one person at the table. Why did this happen and why must we go through this.”

During Julius’s bail application, the Anti-Gang Unit informed the court that he had abandoned his bail application while the State revealed he had been out on bail for a previous case at the time of the shooting.