Annari du Plessis had a gut feeling on Tuesday that she needed to go to the “evil house” rooted menacingly to the street where her community centre operates.
It was a decision that saved a young girl’s life.
Inside the derelict house, Du Plessis, the founder of the Cross Roads community centre in Vanderbijlpark, was horrified at the scene she encountered: a 13-year-old girl, Thabang*, dirty and unkempt, lay inside a room where she had been kept as a sex slave for two months to keep a pimp in drugs and money.
“This house is in the same street as Cross Roads is in – it’s 100m away. It’s an evil house. I’ve already removed four children from there. I pass it many times a day and I wish it would burn to the ground.
“I had a gut feeling I should go to the house. I walked over and spoke to the man inside. I told him I had a complaint and I needed to go inside.
“He let me in and I found the young girl. He was the pimp. An old man there said he was her grandfather and that she was on her way back to Parys. The girl was numb and she didn’t say much.
“She eventually told me she had been raped in this house over a period of two months. The guy who ‘owns’ her is a drug addict. When he didn’t have money for drugs, he would bring in Nigerians and allow them to rape her.
“He sold her to other men to rape her. The old madala stood by while men raped her, but he has now spoken and is in a place of safety.”
Thabang’s ordeal started when her stepfather sent her to live with her grandmother in Parys. “There was sexual assault at her school in Windberg and she was also raped by a family member,” explains Du Plessis.
“She was 12 when she was brought into the Nigerian drug sex-slave network by a family member. From Parys, she was taken to Welkom.
“The door opened every day for the past six months and Nigerians raped her. She was kept in a room and only given bread to eat. She was forced to use rocks and alcohol. From there she was brought to Vereeniging and then to Vanderbijlpark, where she has been for the past two months.
“She has been raped a lot, more than you think. But she is so awesome. We want to cry, to fall to pieces, but she is standing so strong. I believe God will do great things through this young girl.”
Du Plessis, a former policewoman, set up Cross Roads four years ago. She believes it was God who placed her in the same street where the house is located.
“I work with drug addicts, prostitutes, broken people who end up here. That’s why the Nigerians hate me so much because I take their business away. People flood in here. Some weeks it’s really hard, because of the fact that the police are not doing their job.”
In Thabang’s case, the police initially refused to open a case, Du Plessis claims.
“I went to the police station to register a case against the 17 men who raped her. The policewoman told me I must get into her car so she can take me to her companions who would help me. They want the child. I don’t understand why. She is in a place of safety, she is in a good place now.”
She said a constable from the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit in Vanderbijlpark had taken a statement from Thabang on Friday.
“She’s awesome… if it wasn’t for her (the constable), I don’t know what we’d have done. But there is still no case number.” It means Thabang cannot be taken to state-run Thuthuzela care centre, set up to assist rape survivors and victims of sexual assault, to be examined.
“It’s not specifically to check for semen, because we allowed her to wash. She was very dirty and stinky. It’s so they can put her on anti-retrovirals because she needs that now. But they don’t help you there if there is no case number.”
On Friday, Thabang was reunited with her mother and her sister. “She was really happy,” adds Du Plessis. “She was reported missing at the beginning of the year… There are too many arrests to be made.”
Captain Katlego Mogale, the Gauteng police spokeswoman, disputes Du Plessis’s claims over tardiness. “When we asked to speak to the child, she (Du Plessis) said the child would be more traumatised by that and that we must wait for the mother of the child.
“A case has been opened – there is a case number. Everything cannot be blamed on the police.”
But, like the ANC Women’s League, who joined her on Friday in solidarity, Du Plessis worries there are more unknown victims like Thabang, stranded and abused in Vanderbijlpark.
“They (police) want to keep their crime stats low. I can only do my part. The police should do the rest,” said Du Plessis.
*Not her real name - Saturday Star