“It was during the early morning hours on Thursday, June 18,” Govender recalled.
“I had taken flu medication the night before,” Govender continued saying that the medication must have caused her to sleep so deeply that she did not hear the suspect enter the house.
“The next moment this man woke me up. He was in my bedroom,” Govender remembers clearly.
“He grabbed my hands and tied them. He just told me to cooperate. I was still half asleep, so I didn’t scream or panic. I just did what he said.”
The man was looking for money and allegedly went through Govender’s closet and drawers.
“He asked me for my car keys, but I told him I’d have to look for my keys and couldn’t do so with my hands tied.”
Govender said that the man assaulted her several times. “He choked me and threw me down on the floor.”
The suspect allegedly ignored the jewellery Govender kept in her drawers, but managed to get cash and a cell phone. The suspect then led the disorientated Govender through her house and told her to deactivate the alarm system.
When they came to her front door, he demanded that she open the door for him. Govender took a chance and told the man to untie her hands so that she could unlock the door.
With her hands untied she seized the opportunity and ran out of the house the moment she got the door open. She screamed for help.
“A neighbour, who also lives alone, put on all the lights in her home,” Govender said.
The suspect then fled the scene.
“I used to have a big dog in the yard that had recently died. If that dog had still been here, no one would have been able to get into the house. I only have a very small dog at home now and she is just as terrified as I am,” Govender said.
“My daughter works night-shifts so I’m completely alone here at night.”
After 27 years living in the same house, Govender now feels unsafe and said that she is thinking of moving after this frightening encounter.
The suspect is unknown and no arrests have yet been made.
