Bredasdorp residents angered and shocked at the murder Sulnita Manho tell Zenzile Khoisan and Bethany Ao that they are ready to rise up again against “the evil in our midst”.
Residents of the Overberg town of Bredasdorp, angered and shocked at the murder last week of Sulnita Manho, 23, have warned that if the authorities don’t step in to stop the violence, they’ll bring back Black Sunday.
Bredasdorp mom: What did my child do to deserve this?
Another horrific rape and murder in Bredasdorp
That’s a reference to an event on November 21 1999, when the community rose up against drugs, crime and gangsterism. About 1 000 angry people took on gangsters, shebeen owners and drug merchants they accused of destroying the community.
Now many residents have lost patience, and say they are ready to rise up again against “the evil in our midst”.
People are struggling to come to terms with the tragedy of Manho’s rape and murder last weekend.
The memory of the attack on Anene Booysen, 17, who was raped and murdered in February 2013, is still fresh, along with that of the rape and murder of Kayde Williams, 5, last year.
Sara Manho said she was heartbroken, and horrified at the level of depravity and torture her child endured.
She had just returned from viewing her daughter’s body, and had heard the investigating officer’s detailed explanation of her injuries.
“I am completely broken, my heart is sore and I am devastated at what I have heard today, because it is only now that I discovered what really happened to my child.”
Manho said she could not fathom why someone would torture and damage a young woman in such horrific ways.
Shortly after the crime was reported, police arrested 19-year-old Dalwigo Ward.
Ward appeared in the Bredasdorp Magistrate’s Court on charges of rape and murder on Monday.
Getting a full account of Sulnita’s injuries had given her a sense of her daughter’s last, terrifying moments, said Manho, and she could find no forgiveness in her heart.
She said Ward had shown no remorse when she saw him at court on Monday, which had upset both her and her family.
Now she had to explain to Sulnita’s seven-year-old daughter what had happened.
The family also had to assume the responsibility for raising the little girl.
But she was adamant her daughter’s death should serve as a lesson to the community to stop the social, cultural and spiritual disintegration of what had once been a caring, cohesive, spiritually rich, value-based society.
“What happened to Sulnita must not happen to any other person, and her death should be a warning to others not to walk around, because they must come to accept that there is real danger out there.”
Practical steps needed to be taken if community members didn’t want to wake up to find another woman or child had been killed.
“I am asking that this violence and abuse against the women and the children must stop, and I am specifically asking that police patrol the shebeens, specifically at the end of the month when people get their AllPay social welfare or child support grants.”
Sulnita’s aunt, Katrina Manho, recalled the young woman being in good spirits, jovial and light-hearted when she had visited her hours before the murder.
“She came and told us that she was feeling happy because she had just had a beautiful time in town.
“She then asked us if we would look after her seven-year-old daughter Micaela, who was still at school, as she had an errand that she needed to run. At that time we were just happy together and had no idea something horrific was about to happen,” the aunt said.
Katrina Manho pointed to the fact several of the murders occurred on or about the second day of the month, the day after grants were paid.
“What we have here is that many people get these grants and go directly to the shebeens where all the evils of tik, alcohol and dagga are found.”
Cape Agulhas local municipality HR manager Nombasa Mhlati, who volunteers with the Cape Agulhas Safe House for Women and Children, where Weekend Argus met the Manho family, said she had “a feeling I’ve never had before” when she learnt of Sulnita’s death.
Following the death of Kayde, she said, community members were at first cautious, watching over their children carefully. But a week later things were back to normal, with children out in the streets after 6pm.
“It’s about the fact that people sit idle, people who do not have jobs.
“Those that care and are getting involved are being frowned upon. People don’t want to get involved. External people are the ones doing something. It’s very strange,” Mhlati said.
She was fully behind the spirit of Black Sunday, because the murders were a community issue, and the community needed to stand up as whole.
“The reaction mustn’t be ‘it’s not my problem’. This is happening in the community.”
A skills training centre was established in Anene’s name in a bid to help combat the issue of unemployment and idleness in Bredasdorp. It was funded by the government, but Mhlati said there were insufficient opportunities on offer.
And even though they got stipends from the municipality, many local businesses were reluctant to hire locally thanks to violence in the community.
“People are left idle and they turn to quick fixes, like gangs. They want to belong to groups so they can be able to eat, to drink, to smoke. People take drugs because they want to forget.”
Lana O’Neil, founder and director of the Heavenly Promise safe house for victims of abuse, said the situation in Bredasdorp was alarming, and required a radical intervention.
“The level of brutality that we are seeing in these recent murders goes back more than two decades, and is evident in the narratives of what happened to Mieta Dennis, who was raped and shot in December 1998, and also what happened to Louisa (Pieters) George, who was viciously cut up, which should have been the early indicator that something had gone terribly wrong.”
She said the stories of the women who came through the doors of the safe house revealed a deep spiritual and cultural disintegration, and a growing sense of hopelessness and alienation that couldn’t be addressed in a reactionary, piecemeal fashion.
“What is required here is for a comprehensive study of the effects of unemployment, the collateral damage of substance abuse, and an assessment of attitudes to violence against women and children.
“Many of the survivors, the parents of the victims of this violence, have come through and now participate as volunteers, counsellors or co-ordinators at the safe house, because they are searching for answers of what happened to their loved ones, and for solutions to this growing evil in our midst,” O’Neil said.
“Bredasdorp and many towns like it in the area are in a state of social crisis, and before we come up with top-down imposed projects, we need an all encompassing study of the problems faced by these communities.
“It must be on the same scale as the studies into Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, so that when we come with solutions they will be effective, holistic and sustainable.
“This will require will, and it will require resources and personnel, and this is the kind of project in which the government can put the training and skill of all the unemployed social work graduates to good use.
“If we approach this problem with that level of commitment then Louisa, Mieta, Anene, Kayde, Sulnita and so many others would not have died in vain,” she said.
Youth are both culprits and victims of violence
Sulnita Manho, Kayde Williams, Elda Japhta and Anene Booysen were all females with their lives ahead of them when they were raped and murdered in Bredasdorp.
Two of their attackers had not yet turned 23.
Also read: ‘Kayde’s killer is still out there’
A 2014 study published by the Children’s Institute at UCT, showed young people are most likely to be both the perpetrators and victims of gender-based violence.
Suzette Little, the city’s mayoral committee member for social and early childhood development, said it was important to focus on family values when working with youth to prevent violence.
“Most violence happens within homes, so it’s very important to start teaching young people how to interact with each other. They are two parts of the same unit, so it’s important for people to start understanding that one day they will grow up, get married and have responsibilities.”
At the Mosaic Training, Service and Healing Centre for Women in Wynberg, youth participate in educational workshops and community dialogues about gender-based violence. Programme manager Kerryn Rehse said the problem was that violence had been normalised in society.
“A lot of attitudes that we see in these conversations with youth mirror the ones we see in society – patriarchy, harmful gender norms and stereotypes. We try to unpack these.”
Mosaic’s workshops aim to teach youth healthy ideas about relationships, sex and communication. They also help men with anger issues.
“Gender-based violence affects society as a whole, and intervention has been aimed at adults thus far. That’s a reactionary response,” Rehse said. “We need to integrate gender-based violence education into everything we do with youth. We need to prevent it from occurring.”
Little said most youngsters were against gender-based violence. “They think it must be eradicated from the community. It should be demonised at its core, but there are certain circumstances that lead to violence.”
This included alcohol.
“We must do everything to get people away from boredom and hopelessness, but it’s very challenging.”
She said there were currently preventative programmes in eight Cape Town districts, along with four to six rehabilitation centres in Cape Town, to help substance abusers recover.
“We don’t take people out of communities for rehabilitation. If you take them out, they'll just pick up the same habits when they return. Instead we rehabilitate them within their communities.”
Rehse didn’t believe the government was doing enough.
“There is no co-ordinated strategy or plan on a national level to combat this multi-faceted problem.”
MEC welcomes swift arrest
Condemning the Bredasdorp murders, Social Development MEC Albert Fritz welcomed the swift arrest in the latest case, and urged the police to investigate thoroughly and provide the evidence necessary to “see the alleged perpetrator face the full might of the law”.
He said social workers from the Cape Winelands regional office were attending to the matter, and would provide any necessary trauma counselling to the victim’s family.
Social workers said their Bredasdorp office, opened in March last year, was functional and operational. The resources included one social work supervisor, six social workers, two auxiliary workers, one youth development worker, and one customer care assistant.
Satellite offices also operated weekly at Struisbaai and Bredasdorp.
The department was also funding two NGO partners, Child Welfare South Africa and the ACVV, rendering general social work services, but also family, women and children support programmes.
Among ongoing efforts to reduce violence against women and children, the Bredasdorp local office had also partnered with the Cape Agulhas Municipality and other stakeholders to drive ongoing awareness and prevention campaigns.
The department was engaged in “programmes which seek to sensitise and raise awareness on issues of victim empowerment”.
The ministry said the community of Bredasdorp needed to take a strong stand against abuse and violence aimed at women and children.
Families and communities need to play a greater role in ensuring children, women and other vulnerable segments of society received the necessary support and protection.
The supervision of children should extend to ensuring that under-age children were not drinking alcohol.
“Communities must play an important role in reporting illegal liquor outlets to law enforcement officers, and those which sell alcohol to children.”
In August, NGO partner Heavenly Promise opened a shelter for abused women and children, expanding resources for victims of abuse and violence.
This had all contributed to expanding resources for the community to use.
Weekend Argus