Content warning: This post contains accounts of violence that may be distressing.
It was December, 1994, and 27-year-old Alison Botha had returned to her apartment after dropping her friend Kim home.
That day had been idyllic. She had spent the afternoon at the beach with friends in Port Elizabeth, one of the largest cities in South Africa. Afterwards, everyone had gone back to Alison’s apartment to eat pizza and play Balderdash.
The tall brunette had been head girl at her high school. She was confident and well spoken. After travelling for a number of years, Alison was working as an insurance broker, a job which she enjoyed.
That night, she had promised to drop Kim home afterwards, and now it was around 1am on Sunday morning.
Alison discovered she had lost her very convenient car spot right outside her apartment, and searched for another within walking distance.
Then, she found it. There was a space under a big tree; big enough to block the street lights on an already poorly lit road.
She was looking forward to getting into bed after a cool shower, and so pulled in and reached over to get her clean laundry out of the passenger seat to bring upstairs.
That’s when she felt a gust of warm air.
The car door had been flung open, and standing before her was a scrawny but tall young man with blonde hair.
Immediately, Alison spotted the knife.
“Move over or I’ll kill you,” the man said to her in a low, matter-of-fact voice. She did exactly what he said.
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Not entirely true.
Frans Du Toit made the most severe lacerations to Alison's poor body. Theuns, just 19 at the time, made an effort to participate in the rape and made a single slight cut to her skin. One could say the accomplice, Theuns, acted in such a way as to avoid the horror of the main perpetrator, Du Toit, being turned upon him.
I do have the book, "I Have Life". I watched the movie. The more I watch it /read it, the less certain I become that Theuns Kruger should be locked in prison forever.
Frans du Toit though, absolutely.
But Theuns Kruger was a financially poor young man. He did not even testify at the trial for Alison and one other victim. The young Kruger's actions and words indicate a sort of almost religious deference to the man Du Toit, **as well as an inability to take sexual pleasure in the horrifying act of rape.**
My skeptical mind finds fault with Theuns Krugers' life sentence. Especially since the #metoo movement. Who isn't a godamn rapist as it turns out? Are we supposed to lock away them all!?
Maybe there is a much better solution. Like communication. Like apology. Like fucking empathy for once. Damn.
*(oddly enough, he was chastised for his *while raping* erectile dysfunction in publications after the trial. Like raping is supposed to be a fun thing for all men and what is wrong with this weakling? Shenanigans, I say.)
Spoken like someone who has managed to escape abuse.
Lifetime sentences are for safety, not punishment.