It was a warm summer night. Diane (23) opened up her window for some fresh air before falling asleep.
She woke up some time after 02:00. With her eyes still closed, she felt a shiver down her spine. ‘Someone is watching me,’ she thought involuntarily.
And then she opened her eyes.
She was right.
She could not see his eyes, but it was clear that the silhouette in the window was fixated on her. Shocked, she was unable to utter sound. When she finally managed to scream, he slowly moved away from the window and disappeared into the night.
If you have ever lived in a hostel, you’ve heard this urban legend.
The truth is that stalking happens regularly.
In the ‘good old days,’ stalkers roamed in the gardens, at the windows or at the gates of their prey.
Today, it’s a different story. Social media has enabled stalkers with tools to invade the spaces of their prey in a variety of ways.
Regardless of whether your stalker is an old-school scary guy with Gert van Rooyen spectacles or a tech guru, you can get him or her out of your life. And it is easier than you think.
Obvious solutions come to mind – block her number on your phone. Block him on social media. Yet if your stalker is persistent, you may have to take serious action.
This can be done in terms of the Protection from Harassment Act. This act enables Average Joes and Janes – without the assistance of an attorney – to get court orders against their stalkers as well as court orders compelling the police to investigate their stalkers.
Any victim of stalking may approach his or her nearest Magistrate’s Court for help. The act defines ‘harassment’ (a term that includes stalking) broadly and, in doing so, protects the interests of victims stalked in almost every circumstance.
Harassment is defined as “any unreasonable conduct which the perpetrator knows or ought to know which will cause harm or inspire the reasonable belief that harm may be caused to a complainant or a related person. The harm caused is not limited to physical harm, but is defined to include any mental, psychological or even economic harm.”
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development introduced the Act in answer to the regular occurrence of various forms of harassment in society. Stalking and bullying have been taking their toll and impairing the dignity of thousands of innocent people.
If you have been stalked, go to your nearest court and obtain an application form for a court order that will put a stop to the perpertrator’s behaviour.
Download the form by clicking on this link:
If you have been stalked online, you may add the URL used to stalk you. A magistrate may order that the police investigate the URL to figure out who is behind it.
Following police investigations, the stalker may be arrested. Also, once a protection order has been obtained against the stalker in terms of the act, any future acts of stalking will be grounds for his arrest.
