If you want cool, calm and collected be warned: this post is not for you! Please feel free to browse through my other “feel good” posts, but this one will not be one of those.
I am totally enraged at the complete and utter failure of the so-called Justice System in South Africa. Once again, it has managed to fail a victim. Anene Booysen’s name has already been added to the long lists of dead and raped victims in our country. We are after all the Rape Capital of the world. How sickening is that! Now, her name can also be added to the never ending list of victims who have been failed by a system, which is supposed to be in place to protect.
For those of you who don’t know Anene Booysen’s tragic story, let me enlighten you. At the tender age of 17, Anene went out partying with friends not far from her house on the 1st of February 2013. In the early morning hours of 2 February 2013, a security guard found her. She had been gang-raped, beaten to a pulp and disemboweled. They managed to get her to a hospital and after hours of struggling, she passed away. Her life taken, her family destroyed. Before she died, however, she managed to name one of her attackers, Jonathan Davids, and old family friend.
The attack was condemned by President Jacob Zuma and countless organisations and individuals added their voice. We had CNN, BBC and Skynews, to name the major players, descend on the little town of Bredasdorp. The United Nations added their voice and Annie Lennox headed up a protest march in Anene’s honor.
Why the outrage?
The State have just withdrawn their case against Jonathan Davids, he is a free man and left to carry on with his life.
Now, these are the facts that I don’t give a rat’s ass about:
I don’t care whether they might have felt that she led them on! No girl will want this to happen to her, I don’t care who says what.
I don’t care whether, as is speculated, he has turned State Witness! He was no witness to the attach. If he stood by and watched it happen, he is as much of a dog turd as the guys who did it. Where were her rights?
I don’t care whether, as is speculated, she identified him in error. Do you honestly think that she would have thought, in her dying moments, who can I screw over for this and then pick a name?
How many more woman and children need to have their lives destroyed before the Justice System will actually do what it is supposed to do.
I am sick to my stomach. Literally.
We are reaching a boiling point, a point where the community will start to take justice into their own hands. How are we supposed to have any faith in our Justice System? Government beware: You are at the brink of a revolution. You better act fast!
Nanuschka's Blog 
Reblogged this on Bridging Worlds and commented:
Reblogging this because I feel anybody involved in a crime like that should not go free for a very long time. A life was taken, and horrible pain inflicted. How can they trust someone involved in this and even identified by the victim before shesuccumbed to her fatal injuries, be trusted to walk around again? Is a woman’s life that disposable in our country?
Thanks Chris. I am speechless about this. The heartache I feel for the countless victims can not be put into words.
I hugged my daughter because Anene isn’t here to receive such a small warm luxury any more and because I’m grateful I could remove her from South Africa. I read about this but no follow-up was ever reported here in Belgium – still can’t believe the ‘outcome’. How brazenly blind, heartless (to Anene’s brief life and her family left behind) and ignorant.
Welcome! Thank you for reading and commenting. I’m sorry your first visit here had to be on such a somber subject. Hopefully you will find some other interesting reading here too! Very sad indeed. It’s a disgrace really and I can’t imagine what her family must feel tonight.
You don’t have the facts right. She mentioned a name that was a very common nickname. They cannot prove without a doubt that it was Davids. Do you want some one who may be innocent to be convicted? There were 5 people, 2 have been convicted.
Thank you for your comment. If I am wrong I will gladly admit to it. I am merely basing this on information we get from media. All newspapers and television reports indicated that he was personally named by her. However, that does not take anything away from the fact that countless victims are failed by the justice system daily.
This makes me sick too. And this is a high profile case since everybody knows about it. Can you just imagine how much effort is made on the ones where nobody’s watching?
You are right about that. There are thousands of unpublished cases in our system how many are thrown out due to technicalities, intimidation, corruption, lost evidence, etc? People have no faith in the justice system anymore, and I can understand why.