WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW
DURBAN - Surviving a horrific attack by three pitbulls that mauled and ripped off her nose, lips and ears, and bit her thighs, at her boss’ workplace in Potchefstroom, 47-year-old Selina Kokolosi faces a difficult recovery road.
Her niece, Noki Kokolosi, told the Daily News that the story of her aunt still sounds like a pre-1994 apartheid state where dog attacks were set off on black people who, like her aunt, were mangled beyond recognition.
Noki said that she visited her aunt in the hospital and she cried when she saw her struggling to eat, chew and hold food in her mouth after her lips were ripped off by the dogs.
“It is a traumatising experience, with no lips to hold anything in her mouth, the food comes out and she has to lie down facing up in order to swallow food or liquids. My aunt’s life has been turned upside down.
“I am scared to even look at her because she is not the same person I know, the woman who raised me has been turned into a different person. The owners of the dogs have never even bothered to visit my aunt in the hospital.”
Noki told the Daily News that the hospital would begin the surgery process (skin grafts) to try to repair her aunt’s nose, lips, ears and thighs.
Last month, Kokolosi found herself in the jaws of the three pitbulls when she reported for work at the home of her boss where the dogs are always locked up, but for some reason, on the day of the attack, the dogs were let loose and she was attacked as soon she entered the house.
According to ER24 spokesperson Russel Meiring, the woman was found lying inside the home by the front door.
Meiring said according to the information at their disposal, the dogs attempted to attack another individual – a man who attempted to jump over the fence to rescue Kokolosi.
He said bystanders at the scene said that the man shot at the dogs as they tried to attack him.
ER24 and Mooirivier Beskerming arrived at 8.26am to find Kokolosi lying inside the home by the front door.
Kokolosi had been working as a domestic worker for three years earning a salary of R1 300 a month.
Contacted for comment, Kokolosi’s boss, Chandre Moster, and her partner, Marno Moster, have said that they would not be speaking to the media regarding the matter.
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