Aunt tells of horror injuries

INLSA

The murdered girl's room. Picture: Henk Kruger

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The rage of Bredasdorp residents over the gang-rape, murder and mutilation of 17-year-old Anene Booysen is at boiling point, and they have threatened to take the law into their own hands if they find more suspects.

So far two men have been arrested – Jonathan Quinton Davids, 22, and a second man, who is expected to appear in court on Friday.

It is estimated that in South Africa every hour 150 men carry out rapes.

This staggering figure is an estimation of:

* The 144 rapes reported to the police every day.

* The Medical Research Council’s latest research that reveals that only one in 25 women in Gauteng report rape.

Anene Booysen Davids

This adds up to 3 600 rapes a day.

Davids appeared in the Bredasdorp Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on charges of rape and murder.

The community threats come as new details about the extent of Anene’s injuries emerge.

Independent Newspapers visited Anene’s family at the Simunye RDP development outside Bredasdorp on Thursday.

Wilma Brooks, Anene’s aunt, wept when the question of Anene’s injuries arose. After half a minute’s silence, she spoke.

“Her throat had been slit, all her fingers and both legs were broken, a broken glass bottle had been lodged in her, her stomach had been cut open… That which was supposed to be inside her body lay strewn across the scene where they found her.”

Anene was left for dead at a construction site near her home. It’s believed her attackers had followed her as she was walking home from a sports bar on Friday night. She was taken to hospital in Bredasdorp, transferred to Worcester and then to Tygerberg, where she died on Saturday afternoon.

Independent Newspapers found Anene’s mother, Corlia Olivier, at a relative’s house.

With tears in her eyes she spoke of her relationship with her daughter, who worked as a cleaner for Asla Construction.

“We were mother and daughter, but we were also best friends. She was so helpful – with her around I didn’t need a man in the house. She worked hard and helped to buy food, we shared everything.”

After years of separation because of financial difficulties, Olivier and Anene had been living together in their newly built RDP house for just two months.

“She was everything to me, and such a joyous person. I can’t recall that I ever lost my temper with her. She was just too sweet,” said Olivier.

On the morning after the attack Olivier visited her daughter at Otto du Plessis Hospital in Bredasdorp.

“From the moment I entered the door I could hear her screaming: ‘Mother, mother please help me’ – without her knowing that I had come.

“I walked up to her bedside and saw what they had done to my girl.”

Mom and daughter shared their final words there, before Anene was transferred to Worcester.

Today Anene’s room remains as she left it: meticulously tidy, with Michael Jackson posters on the wall and flowers everywhere.

“At night when it gets quiet and I am alone is when I will miss her the most. We always used to joke that we don’t need a TV, because we had each other. I think I may have to get one now,” said Olivier.

Meanwhile, the community has expressed outrage at her murder. Some threatened to attack the police van bringing the suspects to court for their next appearance.

“As a community we have to do something to bring this crime against girls and women to an end,” said Sara Mageni, whose six-year-old daughter was similarly raped and assaulted with a broken bottle four years ago.

“She’ll never bear children, but at least she’s still with us,” she said.