|
SURVIVOR'S
STORIES Written
October, 2000 by Charlene Smith (c) There
is a long break in the trial into the rape and murder of 14-year-old
Shaheeda Valencia Farmer. The cop behind me confides, "tomorrow I
have a case where a woman was murdered on Christmas Day, 1998, her
genitals cut off and then the accused placed her body on a railway
track." He
pauses, "but it was Christmas Day, no trains were running, I arrested
him the next day. The pathologist in her report said it was the worst case
of mutiliation she had ever seen. "Tomorrow
when the case is heard I am going to have to fetch the four witnesses in
my private vehicle - and the state won't refund my petrol costs. But
otherwise they will never come to court and the case will be lost. At
Kensington police station (in a gangland area) we have six detectives and
two cars. The one car has 252
000km on the clock, it's falling apart, but if we don't care for it we'll
never get another." He
can't remember the name of the woman who died, "van Wyk, I think. She
was 25. The accused is a friend of her boyfriend, he was 20 when the crime
took place." He reflects, "the one thing you learn in this job
is that people are dangerous." Court
One, Cape Town High Court, in which we sit, has elegant pale yellow and
white walls with wood panels. There are discreet corridors of soft green
carpet over immaculately sealed Oregon pine floors.
The public sit with mouths pressed against the brass railings of a
high balcony, overlooking the court, and red robed Judge Siraj Desai and
two assessors listening to the minutae of case 992/06/99. Valencia
might have also been a forgotten name in a brutal crime. But she was 14
and managed to drag herself out of an abandoned house in Eerste Rivier
where she was allegedly gangraped and stabbed 50 times, and had her throat
slit, to collapse in the street in the arms of her mother. Sylvia
Farmer sits with her head bowed in the front of the court.
Next to her is Malvern de Bruyn, a thin, intense man with the
countenance of a pastor. He is the unpaid head of the local community
policing forum in Blue Downs near Somerset West, where Sylvia, a single
mother, lives with her seven-year old son, in a house that Transnet has
since August of last year - two months after Valencia's death - threatened
to sell under the small family who have lived there for 10 years. Sylvia,
a former Transnet employee, when asked outside the court what her most
serious concern is, says, "to find a way to save my house, I owe R36
000. People keep coming to look at it." She looks up, "you know,
by the time Valencia died I had been unemployed for three years, but eight
months ago I got a job as a security officer, I earn R1 200 a month now, I
am trying." The
fathers of her two children have never contributed maintenance. She
lives in a community where violence against children is not rare. There
have been so many children raped and murdered in Blue Downs that De Bruyn,
a former motor mechanic and father of two children, who has been
unemployed for two years, has set up a support group of 15 mothers whose
children have been raped and murdered in the area - three in the last few
months. He
sighs, "Nadia von Welligh was buried this morning. We have to be so vigilant in
the ways in which we watch our children. There are 280 000 people who live in Blue Downs, about 47%
are unemployed. We have 36 neighbourhood watches so not much of a gang
problem. "We
want to start the Valencia Farmer Trust to raise money to help families of
children murdered and abused in our area, but we can't afford a
lawyer." In
the 15 months since Valencia was murdered, Sylvia has received no
counselling. She has no money. Instead
she tries to help other mothers who have lost their children to murderers,
find healing. "I suppose this has brought the community closer,
people come to me all the time for help. It hurts me, but I can at least
help others." In
the recess - granted to find an Afrikaans translator to assist former
judge and Truth and Reconciliation commissioner, Dumisa Ntsebeza, who is
representing the youngest accused, a boy of 16 - journalists and lawyers
chat. One
journalist is leafing through the compilation of pictures of Farmer's
naked body. The child's back is peppered with knife wounds. A police
officer says, "Jesus, but this is bad", as he leafs though the
compilation. David
Kowalsky, a thin, silver haired advocate who represents accused number
one, Glenville "Bekkies" Faro who claimed he had consensual sex
with Farmer, approaches a journalist. "What do you need to
know?" he offers. He skims over aspects of the case thus far, he is
relieved his client admitted to consensual sex because DNA evidence links
his client to the crime scene. It also links Franklin "Frankie"
Roberts and the 16-year old. It is inconclusive about Johannes "Piel"
Kriel. Kowalsky
discusses the DNA evidence delivered to the court by Superintendent
Sharlene Otto of the Delft Forensic Laboratories in Cape Town.
"DNA is like the struts of a ladder, if you get four different
items then it means she was raped by two people. But here there are five
struts, it means she was raped by three or more people - they left semen
or blood. So DNA places three or more people on the scene. "I
had a colleague Estelle Scholtz who made a succesful attack on DNA in May,
1995 ..." but he admits, DNA technology has advanced significantly
since, "it has become difficult to attack". The
evidence thus far - in a case expected to drag on for most of this month
notes
that Shaheeda Valencia Farmer went with neighbours to a club called the
Pink Tent, close to her home where she consumed beer and spoke with "Bekkies"
who draped his brown leather jacket over her, so she could escape the cold
of a Cape winter night. She
was last seen in his company. Outside
the court Sylvia Farmer, a stout woman, about 1,64m confides,
"Valencia was stocky, she was a little taller than me, and weighed
about 75kg, she wore a size
38 jeans. "She
was a very friendly, helpful, soft hearted child. She didn't like anyone
to be sad. She was very clever at school. Just before she died she
received an A+ in a history assignment, her marks were above average, she
would get around 90% as the end of term average at school." Sylvia
Farmer holds onto a balustrade in the court building, her fingers
tightening, her eyes emotionless, she rubs her forehead. "This hurts
me, I use pills to cope. Valencia's brother seems to cope okay, but I
don't know, it is so difficult to know." Sylvia
Farmer lowers her head and closes her eyes, "I am so tired." *
Contributions can be made to the Valencia Farmer Trust, or
assistance given to the Blue Downs Community Policing Forum, by contacting
Malvern de Bruyn on 082-644-8700 or (021)904-5622 or by writing to 15
Suikerbossie street, Forest Village, Eerste River, Blue Downs, 7100.
© Speak Out Terms of use |