The father, whose name is being withheld to protect his daughter’s identity, says the upsetting incident took place some six weeks ago, when restaurants were still open for seated clients.
His 17-year-old daughter and a friend were standing in a social distancing queue at the doorway of a popular Vanderbijlpark restaurant, waiting to be seated, when another patron, a man of about 40, suddenly approached her from behind. He bear-hugged her with one arm and forced his other hand from behind between her legs and grabbed her privates.
“This was captured on CCTV and also witnessed by two independent bystanders. My daughter weighs only 52kg and the offender at least 90kg. There was no way she could defend herself against his attack. She was highly upset and started crying. Within ten minutes we identified him through the cell number he had given on arrival. He was also easily identifiable on the CCTV footage. The police insisted on interviewing my daughter alone, despite being a minor, and afterwards refused to open a case as she was ‘illegally interviewed’. It took us four days to get a docket registered and we eventually could get a case number,” says the father, who was a detective in a specialized investigation unit in the 1980s.
“I retrieved the CCTV footage at the restaurant. It took the police three weeks to ask for it. It shows clearly how my daughter was assaulted by the man, who wasn’t even wearing his mask. Had I not initially intervened, that footage would have been taped over. Now, six weeks later, the police are not communicating or replying to my messages regarding the case. They have not even approached the man we identified, and whose phone number and place of employment we supplied,” says the father.
It was in the meantime established that the suspect is a senior manager at a well-known financial services group.
“Neither my daughter nor I want to walk away from the incident as we believe that he planned and executed it with precision and experience. My daughter was not his first or last victim. He deserves to be exposed!”
The SAPS undertook to comment on the incident. Vaalweekblad will publish their response as soon as it is received.
