January 12, 2010 is a date 55-year-old Maria* has etched on her mind for the rest of her life.
“I was with my daughter, Nana* who was 20 years old at the time. We went to Avalon (Cemetery) in the afternoon to pray over my aunt’s grave. As we approached Avalon with our car, we were told at the gates that we couldn’t go inside with the car so we parked it outside the cemetery,” she said, recalling the events leading to the rape of her daughter by the man dubbed the “Avalon Cemetery Rapist”, Jazzman Rikhotso.
“It started raining as we were walking towards the grave. We noticed a man walking towards us… He waved at us in greeting. As he came closer, he said he had been sent by the cemetery security to protect us. He asked if we had come across a woman who had just been stabbed and we said no. He asked us where we lived; we told him. As we continued our walk with him, he suddenly said, ‘What if I turned on you now, what would you do?’ We said we couldn’t do anything.”
Rikhotso ordered the women to hand over their cellphones and money. In a panic, Nana dismantled her phone, took out her SIM card and gave him her cellphone.
“He ordered us to stand by a tombstone and ordered Nana to undress,” she said.
He raped Nana right before her mother’s eyes, something she says she will never forget.
Maria was one of the women who sat and listened during the sentencing of Rikhotso at the Johannesburg High Court yesterday. She was also one of the women who sobbed softly when Judge Colin Lamont sentenced Rikhotso to 17 life sentences for the rapes of 12 women.
“I was in so much pain, he raped my child in front of me and I was helpless. I felt even worse because I had wanted to organise a big party for my daughter’s 21st birthday the following year to celebrate her entering womanhood … I couldn’t do that after what happened. I just want people to be careful now and know what is going on at the cemetery, it’s no longer safe out there,” she added.
For Thandi*, who was raped in the full view of her six-year-old daughter, it is going to take time to heal her deep emotional wounds.
Her eyes welled up with tears outside court as she said: “He has ruined my child’s life, and he has taken away the joy of pure experiences. My child is eight years old now but she’ll never be the same after seeing what she saw.
“We now all have to deal with our emotions. He may be going to jail for a long time, but we now have to learn to move on.”