Cape Town -
One of the men jailed for life for the 1999 rape and murder of Eerste River teenager Valencia Farmer – one of the country’s most gruesome slayings – is being considered for release on parole.
Franklyn Roberts has served 14 years of the double life sentence imposed on him in March 2001 after Judge Siraj Desai convicted him of raping and murdering Valencia.
He and co-accused Glenville Faro were each sentenced to two life terms, while Russel van Wyk, a juvenile at the time, was sentenced to 18 years for the murder and 15 years for the rape.
Johannes Kriel was acquitted due to a lack of evidence against him and charges against Elmario Maasdorp and Albert Frieslaar were withdrawn.
Valencia was gang-raped, stabbed more than 50 times and had her throat slit before she was left for dead not far from her home in Stratford Green, Eerste River.
In her final moments she managed to crawl for a distance until neighbours found her.
This week, Correctional Services authorities confirmed that Roberts was considered for parole by the National Council of Correctional Services last month.
However, Faro has not yet been seen by the council.
Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha has the final say on whether the lifers should be released.
Speaking to Weekend Argus this week, Sylvia Farmer, Valencia’s mother, said it was too soon for Roberts to be released.
The 58-year-old appeared exhausted and hurt as she spoke about the last 16 years. “I have suffered from that time up until now.”
People had moved on with their lives and forgotten about her, she said, adding that she has had to struggle on her own.
It upset her when she read reports of other victims of crime receiving support when no one bothered to help her at a time when she was most vulnerable.
“It’s as if people thought I had received millions (in compensation),” she offered as a possible explanation for why no one ever came forward to offer help.
Attempts to start a Valencia Farmer Trust had fallen through the cracks.
After Valencia’s murder, Farmer spent most of her time in bed with little or no energy to face the world.
Much of her reluctance to continue with her life had to do with medication she had taken for depression which made her feel “like a zombie”.
But she realised that she had to pull herself together and, with the help of her siblings and the solace she had found in prayer, Farmer ventured back into the world.
“It was a slow process but I got through it,” she said, adding that she had to force herself to do so because she needed to earn an income.
Before Valencia was killed, life had been good for the Farmers. She worked as a security guard and later operated a shop from home.
But she now lives on a R1 200 monthly disability grant, she said, pointing to her bandaged right foot – the result of diabetes.
She also has arthritis and asthma, she said.
But the grant was not enough to see her through a month which meant that she had borrow money for essentials, such as electricity.
In addition, she was at risk of losing her home.
On a wall in her lounge is a framed photograph of Valencia. Underneath the picture are the words: “Remember Valencia Farmer and others like her.”
Farmer’s eyes welled up as she looked at the picture and explained that she had taught her grandson to call Valencia “tietie” (aunt).
“It’s not something that one can forget easily. It’s not as if she died of an illness or in a car accident. She had 53 stab wounds, her neck was cut and she was raped. It was too violent.”
She still had so many questions, she said, and she battled to grasp why Valencia was killed.
The families of Faro and Roberts could still visit them in prison, but she could not visit Valencia, she said.
“All I have is a grave which is vandalised,” she said, adding that crosses she had put up at the grave in the Welmoed Cemetery had been stolen and that flowers often disappeared.
There wasn’t even a name to mark the grave as that of Valencia, she said, adding that she did not have money for a tombstone.
A pastor in Ravensmead wanted to create a fountain of remembrance to honour Valencia, but it never materialised and, to date, there is nothing in Stratford Green to remember the teen by.
As for Faro and Roberts, Farmer said she feared the worst if the men were released. “Who says those children will behave out here?”
People who were sentenced to life imprisonment after 2004 usually become eligible for consideration for release on parole after serving 25 years.
However, since Faro and Roberts were sentenced in 2001, before the law relating to parole changed, they became eligible after serving 13 years and four months.
Lifers go through a rigorous parole process that starts with a case management committee and ends with a recommendation to the minister from the National Council of Correctional Services, which is chaired by Judge Desai.
Judge Desai was, however, not involved in Roberts’s parole consideration because he was the presiding judge in that case.
Once the council recommendation is made, the final decision rests with the minister.
Sunday Argus