A 61-year-old white farmer stands accused of sexually abusing nine schoolgirls. Strangely, none of his neighbours seem surprised. Ricardo Dunn reports
Ockie Olivier’s smallholding in Louisrus is typical of this depressed area south of Johannesburg: a creaking windmill, wild flowers and stray dogs set against the backdrop of steelworks, industry and pollution billowing into the wide sky.
But Olivier’s windows are all painted white. His neighbours say every afternoon he would pick up about 10 kids from the local Ramolele Primary School and bring them to swim at his house.
In a back room, hidden behind his house, lived 19-year- old Stompie Roodland, who had been his lover since the age of 11.
Olivier (61) was arrested two weeks ago and charged with sexually abusing nine schoolgirls aged between eight and 12. Most of the girls live on nearby smallholdings with their parents, workers on nearby farms.
These labourers call Olivier “Ramajwe”, which means Stone, and many of them said this week the arrest was overdue. For several years they have accused him of abusing their children.
Jo-Anna van Schalkwyk, Olivier’s neighbour, says she is glad Olivier had been rude when her two children climbed over the fence and played in his yard with the kids of his workers and those from other smallholdings.
She and her husband, Jan, have only been living in the house for six months and at first found it strange that Olivier’s windows were all painted white. She also found his familiarity and fondness for the black children in the area unusual.
“Olivier would pick up about 10 children from Ramolele every day and allow them to swim naked in the swimming pool,” she recalls. At times he would brag to her, often when he was drunk, about how he bought the black children school clothes. “There were children in and out of the house. We thought it strange there were all these naked black children in the swimming pool, but we didn’t want to get involved.”
Van Schalkwyk never spoke to Olivier about the white windows or the activities in the pool. However, she says she discussed the matter with the local butcher and he was not surprised Olivier had been arrested.
Nono Kleintjie, a worker on a nearby smallholding who has lived in Louisrus all her life, says she suspected something was going on.
Sara and Pieter Mhlope were at the Vanderbijl District Court last week. They were there to see what would happen to their boss accused of raping two of their youngest daughters, aged 11 and 12. They are bitter, angry and scared — the only people spoken to who were taken aback by the charges against Olivier.
The Mhlope family has worked on Olivier’s smallholding for five years. Eight of them share a two-roomed house.
They lived rent-free and earned R230 to support their six children. They were shocked when they heard allegations that two of their daughters had been sexually molested by Olivier. “We did not know this sort of thing might be happening,” says Pieter Mhlope.
News of the alleged abuse reached the Mhlope family through a teacher at Ramolele. The teacher found it unusual when their 11-year-old regularly had a “dosh” of snuff, a luxury among the locals. Asked where she got it from, the young girl said “Ramajwe” had often given her money to buy it. After probing, the girl apparently claimed Olivier had been “touching her” and in return he would “spoil her with gifts”.
After further investigation, the teacher told police she had discovered that other children in the school claimed to have been “touched” by Olivier. It took several attempts by the teacher to get the Child Protection Unit to investigate the case, but Olivier was arrested and charged.
The Mhlope parents were taken aback by all this “He was always very friendly with the children. They were allowed into the house, while my husband was not,” says Sara Mhlope.
The Mhlope parents are overcome by their emotions. They say they feel both guilt and helplessness. Pieter Mhlope had over the years become dependent on Olivier’s generosity, but in retrospect believes he made a pact with the devil. Olivier would occasionally buy the family a bag of mielie meal or a “gallon” of cooking oil at the end of the month. “He bought me groceries and he thought that (in return) he could fuck my children.”
Sara Mhlope says the children were afraid to tell them what happened because they were terrified of Olivier. Olivier had told his neighbours, and the children who live on the smallholding, that he had in 1992 accidentally shot and killed a black child. Olivier threatened the children with the same fate if they told anybody what went on in his house.
Sara Mhlope says her daughter told both her and the police about these threats. She also told her mother the snuff Olivier bought made her feel dizzy.
During investigations into the case, the children said when they emerged from the house, Olivier would insist they should go for a swim in the pool.
The Mhlopes are feeling unsafe and uncertain about their future. They live on Olivier’s land, and believe they are at his mercy.
This week Olivier was given bail of R2 500. But not before admitting to the court that he had had sex with his 14-year-old niece, who had borne his baby. And that he had an earlier conviction for manslaughter. There was uproar in the court. Parents were furious that he was being released.
Roodland is now 19, but she was 11 when she became Olivier’s lover and confidante. Over the years she became known to the Louisrus community as the mistress of die ou wit baas. Although everybody knew she was his lover, Olivier, who is divorced, insisted Roodland sleep in the room hidden behind his house.
But the same community that often protected her against the snide remarks about her sexual liaison with Olivier unleashed their anger on the would-be child bride last week. Schoolchildren and some parents viciously turned on her outside the court when Olivier made his first appearance.
“There is nothing wrong with the white man having sex with your black children,” Roodland shouted back. “You don’t know what you are missing. Maybe you should try it for yourselves.”
The 200-strong crowd reacted by assaulting Roodland with fists, sticks and umbrellas. She was saved when a police van came to her rescue and whisked her away. Nobody in the community has seen or heard from Roodland since. She has stripped her room behind Olivier’s house and fled.
Some names have been changed to protect the children