Blikkiesdorp resident Mami Vadne winces in pain. Her legs are covered in bandages and tears roll down her cheeks as she recalls how three men beat her with a steel pipe and a gun until she lost consciousness.
The 33-year-old was walking to a communal toilet a few metres from her home in Blikkiesdorp when three men approached her early on Saturday.
Her husband, Shabane Vadne, who wasn’t home at the time, said his wife was outside the toilet when the men asked her to open the gate to her house.
“She refused because she knew they would steal everything. So they hit her in the stomach with the back of a gun before using a steel bar on her legs.
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My wife’s screams alerted the neighbours, so the men ran away,” he said
Now the family lives in fear after Mami, a mother-of-four, was allegedly threatened by the same men yesterday on her way home from a follow-up visit to the clinic.
“No one can provide safety for us and the men said they would come back for her because they know she had opened a case,” her husband said.
Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel André Traut confirmed that a case of assault had been opened at the Delft police station.
“The complainant alleges the men were armed with a firearm, a knife and steel bar. She was instructed to open the door to her structure and when she refused, the men assaulted her with the firearm in her stomach, stabbed her in the leg with a knife and hit her over the legs with a steel pipe.”
A neighbour found Mami, who reportedly lost consciousness before being taken to Delft Hospital by ambulance.
At home yesterday, Mami cried out in pain and the tears flowed freely as her husband helped her into a sitting position on a couch.
“She is very traumatised and afraid. It’s been very difficult, we have faced many problems as refugees… There is just talk but no one comes to help us,” said Shabane. The Congolese couple have been living in Blikkiesdorp for a year and five months.
“Before we moved here, we were staying at a refugee camp after xenophobic violence erupted. At the time of the violence, we were living in Samora Machel.
“We faced attacks, so that’s why we ran. I also ran from groups of militia in Congo seven years ago. As foreigners we are easy targets because they (the criminals) know we would keep quiet and that nothing would be done,” said Shabane.
Jerome Daniels, the Blikkiesdorp for Hope committee chairman, said these kind of assaults often happened in the area and residents were living in fear.
“We had meetings with the police over drug dealing and shootings. On Sunday, we also had an anti-crime march in Blikkiesdorp,” he said
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the investigating officer, Detective Constable Rodney Andrew, at 021 954 9000 or 076 386 3546.
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