Exactly eight years since Sasha-Lee November went missing, family and members of the Hanover community have not given up hope, holding a night vigil to commemorate another year since her disappearance.
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The vigil, organised by Women2Women, will take place in front of the family’s home at 19 Groenall Walk, Hanover Park, where the then six-year-old girl was last seen on 3 May 2015.
While the first vigil started on the day she was reported missing, both her parents have subsequently passed away.
‘Women2Women held the vigil every year until 2019, then Covid-19 kicked in and we had to stop,’ said Women2Women media liaison officer Amelda September. ‘In 2023, we decided to do it again because this year it will be eight years since she went missing. Up till now we have no information of what happened to Shasha.’
Speaking to IOL, September said that representatives and station commanders from the Philippi and Grassy Park police stations, Western Cape Missing Persons Unit, and Belmor Primary, among other organisations, would be present to create awareness of her case and that of other missing people.
When contacted by the publication, Sasha-Lee’s eldest sister, Jasmine Harris (35), was putting up her sister’s old missing person poster and handing out flyers throughout Hanover Park before Wednesday’s vigil.
She recalled that her sister disappeared on a Sunday afternoon, and the meal she had given her at lunchtime was the last time she saw her younger sister.
‘She was playing outside in the road, just a few houses away from our house, with friends They (police) never phoned me with any information, no updates,’ she said.
‘As we were doing the terminus of Hanover Park, putting up posters and handing out flyers, people were very surprised that she was still missing.’
‘They thought she had been found already. I do believe she is still alive and I do hope one day that someone will bring her home safely to us.’
She added that her family spent a few months with the community searching for Sasha-Lee.
‘A lot of people came out, people that were pregnant, people who had babies in strollers, went to go and look for her in dams and we never stopped. After three or four months we were still looking for her; even today people are still looking.’
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Picture: Unsplash