This Tuesday Special Assignment re-visits a crime of such horror that it still resides in the souls of all involved. In 1994 South Africa’s most notorious serial killer, the Station Strangler, was finally caught and convicted. Norman Simons was a respected teacher and community activist in Mitchells Plain. He was arrested after he allegedly embarked on a killing spree that left 22 little boys sodomised and strangled. His arrest polarised and angered a community long traumatised by the murders.

These are some of the questions still being asked by a fearful and increasingly enraged Mitchells Plain community. They believe their pleas for answers have been ignored. Now the community has threatened to boycott future elections unless the government adequately responds, takes effective action to help secure the safety of children and speedily brings those who prey on the innocent to justice.

It is for this reason that Special Assignment has excavated such a painful story. We have uncovered facts surrounding the case and the investigation of which the public has previously been unaware. We have also contacted most of the people involved in this story: those who knew Simons and were even taught by him; key members of the investigation task team, including Chief Investigation Officer Andre Oliver, forensic psychologist Micki Pistorius and Task Team Co-ordinator Johan Kotze who is now the acting Chief of the Scorpions Investigation Unit in the Western Cape. To this day they still carry the horror of this case. We have also returned to the community and the families whose lives were devastated by those brutal, senseless murders. And we have learnt that, even after a decade, time is not necessarily a healer.

This disturbing documentary is directed by Hazel Friedman and was filmed by Shamiel Albertyn.