Cape Town - Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille will never forget June 16, 1997 – the day her younger sister’s mutilated body was found dumped in Bloekombos.
She had been raped, stabbed 42 times and disembowelled.
De Lille’s sister, Leatitia Lindt, 26, was approached by two men while on her way home from a Youth Day rally.
”I was in Joburg when I got the news,” De Lille said on Wednesday. “I came home the next day to walk through Bloekombos and speak to people there to find out what had happened.
“Police later arrested two people. One of the accused was out on bail for rape and the other one was a teenager – 16 years old.”
De Lille said 1997 was one of the most difficult years of her life.
“My mother was in a terrible state. The police delivered my sister’s bloodstained clothing to our house in a black bag. That traumatised all of us.
“I had to tell the police to take the clothes back as it was evidence. From that day, I vowed to take up the fight against rape and violent crime.”
Towards the end of 2008, Lindt’s killers were convicted and sentenced to 25 years and 15 years in jail. “The younger accused got 15 years. I think he’s out of jail, back on the streets.
“The pain will always be there – and it will be there for Anene Booysen’s mother and all the other women’s families for years to come. I have eventually learnt to live with the pain.”
In her speech at a full council meeting on Wednesday, De Lille asked councillors to observe a moment of silence to remember the women who lost their lives to gender-based violence.
“Those who have left us should know that we are doing all that we can to change our society and mobilise it against this hatred.”
Cape Argus