Convicted 'killer' busted in Table View for robbery

Questions have arisen over how the teen convicted of the murder of Suritha Alting, 28, was found robbing people in Table View this month - less than two years after he was sentenced. 

Table View dad, Dave Walters, said he was shocked when he was informed by investigators that the man who robbed him of his cellphone two weeks ago was in fact a "killer who slipped through the cracks". 

The 50-year-old man said Xolani Du Preez and his accomplice were busted on April 17 after they entered his home. 

"I was at home playing Call of Duty and had left the gate open as I knew my son would probably leave around midnight to meet up with his girlfriend.

"I saw two males and initially thought they were my son’s friends but then I saw they put their fingers on their lips and said 'shhh' and this is when I knew it was a break-in.

"The one grabbed my cellphone and they fled running in opposite directions."

Walters and his son chased after the suspects and tracked the cellphone’s location as they alerted police. 

Police arrived on the scene along Blaauwberg Road and the Oppo cellphone was recovered. 

Police spokesperson, Wesley Twigg, confirmed the arrest: "Table View police registered a house robbery case for investigation on Thursday, April 17, in Hoorn Street, Table View. The suspects fled the scene with a cellular telephone worth R10 000. We can confirm that two males age 19 and 22 were arrested on Friday, April 18, and appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court." 

Walters said several days later he returned to Table View police station to thank SAPS for their work, when he was called by detective’s who revealed the identity of the suspect. 

"They told me that he is the guy who was convicted of killing the woman in Richwood.

"According to that sentence he was supposed to serve two years and 245 days at a juvenile facility and later eight years at an adult correctional facility but somehow the killer just slipped through the cracks," said Walters. 

The case Walters is refering to happened in November 2023, when Du Preez was sentenced by the Parow Regional Court to two years and 245 days in a child youth care facility and eight years’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to Alting’s murder.

At the age of 17, Du Preez robbed and stabbed Alting as she returned home from a restaurant in Richwood.

He pleaded guilty to murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances under the Child Justice Act.

Department of Correctional Services spokesperson, Singabakho Nxumalo, referred all questions to the National Prosecuting Authority and the Department of Justice, saying Du Preez appears as a remand detainee and not a sentenced detainee on their system. 

He could not clarify if Du Preez was taken into custody after being convicted and sentenced. 

According to text messages received on Walters's phone, he was informed by police that Du Preez appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court last week and will return to court on 23 May. 

Cape Argus