As South Africans continued to pledge their allegiance to the 16 days activism against violence against women and children campaign last week, a career woman and mother of three was battling with multiple physical injuries sustained in an alleged attack by a local radio personality that followed a party of a Polokwane businessman in the early hours of last Monday.
Identity protected
The 30-year-old woman, whose identity is being protected due to the nature and sensitivity of the case, has instituted charges against the 31-year-old suspect identified as a former radio deejay and sport analyst. Polokwane Observer is not at liberty to publish the details of the suspect either as he is yet to appear in court later this month.
Vulnerable targets
In an interview the complainant revisited an ordeal that could easily have played out anywhere in a country where women and children have become vulnerable targets to an extent where campaigns embargoing the orchestration of violent conduct can’t safeguard them from harm.
Injuries sustained
During the interview conducted in Polokwane she seemed to move about slowly and slanted uncomfortably in a chair, which she attributed to pain caused by her injuries. The woman stated that due to injuries sustained to her neck, back, forehead and tongue she had since endured excruciating pain and afterwards cried for two days due to the emotional state she was in. A week later the pain has moved into her legs and upper back and had become unbearable – preventing her from doing ordinary chores or properly attend to her young kids – while she suffered severe headaches, she proclaimed.
She expressed fear of permanent damage to her back and added that she used to undergo regular physiotherapy for a back problem in the past.
Emotional scars
“I know my physical wounds would heal, but I’m worried about the emotional scars.”
The victim explained that while stopping over in Polokwane last Saturday on the way back from her sister’s funeral en route to Giyani she had stayed over with a friend. Between midnight and 01:00 on Sunday they opted to honour an invitation to a party at a local hangout. There she had met the suspect whom she had encountered once or twice before and knew as someone who went to school with her partner, she pointed out.
They had exchanged pleasantries, he wanted a number from her and before leaving he interrogated a mutual acquaintance in their company about their relation, which she brushed off, according to her. Upon arrival at her friend’s house around 04:00 she returned a missed call on her cell phone which turned out to be from the suspect, she related.
According to her the suspect apparently had knowledge of her friend’s address and shortly after showed up at the house in Flora Park on his way home – with the request to have more contact numbers.
She said he had continued to make sexual advances, while causing a racket in the garden and behaving like a lunatic.
In an attempt to get him out of the yard to avoid a disturbance she had suggested they left, she said.
Upon their return later on she had entered the outside room occupied by her friend, who was sleeping at the time, to charge her cell phone, she said.
The suspect subsequently bashed her phone against the bedroom wall, whereupon she attempted to put it together again and told him to leave, she added.
He then grabbed her and tossed her up into the air, causing her knees to touch her head before landing on the floor. The complainant responded saying she weighed 40 kg, while she estimated her attacker to be about double her size in stature.
Having hurt her coccyx, she lay on the floor because of the impact of the attack, she said. As she tried to crawl away he had repeated the action by grabbing her and bashing her onto the ground, she added.
With the next blow she collided with the wall, thereafter hitting her head against a wardrobe. She wasn’t sure whether she had lost consciousness, but remembered she tried to wake her friend while on the floor and he was about to trample her face with his shoe, she said. The suspect stopped his conduct when he noticed her friend was waking up and left, according to her.
She exclaimed that she was relieved the Police had tracked down the perpetrator, but disappointed that they had let him go because of his abusive nature. She said she didn’t want to think of the possibility of him returning for her out of anger over the case she made against him. She insisted that she would go through with the case she instituted for she believed he had to be exposed for what he did.
“It is mostly fear that would make these things continue and that is what gives power to these men.” It made her angry to think that he didn’t have respect for women whatsoever and that there were a lot of men out there who were like him, she stressed. She conceded that what he did was wrong and she didn’t deserve it. “When a woman says no it is no.”
Polokwane Police spokesperson Ntobeng Phala confirmed the arrest of the suspect on a charge of assault last Wednesday, two days after the alleged incident. He was released on his own cognisance and was warned to appear in court on 29 December, Phala said.
Other individuals identified as possible sources refused to be interviewed for the story out of fear of retribution.
YOLANDE NEL
>>observer.yolande@gmail.com
