Woman mauled by pit bulls is glad that her case will be in court soon

About a year and a half after Dipuo Kokolosi was mauled by her employer’s three pit bulls, the dog owners will appear in the Potchefstroom Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, 6 June, on a charge of keeping dangerous animals.

NW Police spokesperson Col Adele Myburgh said the police received the dossier from the prosecutor on Wednesday, 10 May, with instructions to prosecute and notify the owners. Myburgh confirmed that the owners would be warned to appear in court.

Kokolosi says she got a call from a lawyer sometime last week, giving her an update on the case. “I had already given up and was trying to make peace with the fact that they had forgotten about me,” she said.

She added that her recovery has been slow since the Herald spoke to her in January this year. “I still cannot do most things for myself, but I take things day by day,” she said. She says she will never be able to work anywhere due to her severe injuries. She feels it would only be fair if her former employers reimbursed her for money she could have earned while working for them and the costs she incurred since the incident.

“I have been travelling from one place to another since then. All the while, we have had to make plans to see how we get from one appointment to the other,” she added.

“But I am relieved that the case is still pending nonetheless.” On Tuesday, 25 January 2022, the three pit bulls attacked Kokolosi at her employer’s home. They tore off her nose, lip, earlobes, and other body parts.

Two neighbours, Ziggy Abdullah and Dustin Wetdewich, rushed to her aid that morning. Abdullah shot the dogs at the scene in self-defence. Since the incident, Kokolosi’s life has changed irrevocably. When the Herald interviewed Kokolosi earlier this year, she had just started speaking again after undergoing numerous surgeries. Malan Schutte, the dog owners’ lawyer, confirmed that the dogs were closed behind a gate on the day of the accident and that the owners do not know how they got out.

Schutte told Netwerk24 that his client was heartbroken at the events, and they expect civil claims, which is why they put Kokolosi’s salary away each month. According to Johan le Grange, a criminal defence lawyer, the owners of the dogs could face two years imprisonment or be liable to pay a fine. “Negligence on the owners’ part would need to be proven,” Le Grange said.