Alison Botha in 1999. (Sunday Times/Gallo)
Tiaan Eilerd, the man who sat beside Alison Botha and held her hand after she was raped, repeatedly stabbed, nearly decapitated and left for dead on 18 December 1994, believes her attackers should not be allowed back into society.
Political parties and lobbyists against gender-based violence have criticised the department of correctional services for granting parole to convicted rapists Theuns Kruger and Frans du Toit after serving 28 years in prison.
They were found guilty of raping Botha, stabbing her more than 30 times and trying to slit her throat 16 times. During sentencing in August 1995 in the Port Elizabeth high court, Judge Chris Jansen called the two men “inherently evil” and sentenced them to life in prison.
Eilerd told the Mail & Guardian he was bewildered and angry when he read on Facebook about their release on 4 July.
“The prison system is supposed to keep violent predators out of society, but they are releasing them back. It is very upsetting. It makes me angry.”
Eilerd, now a doctor in Gauteng, was the first person to see Botha’s brutal and near-fatal injuries. Twenty years old at the time, he and his friends were travelling to their lodgings at The Willows caravan park in Gqeberha on the night of 18 December 1994.
The group travelled in two vehicles behind each other and maintained a moderate speed because the road was “full of twists and turns and pitch dark”, recalls Eilerd, who was in the second car.
The convoy came to a halt when they noticed a body lying in the middle of the road. At first they thought it was a victim of a hit-and-run. But when Eilerd approached Botha, he “immediately knew it was not a vehicle accident”.
“She was lying on her back, almost gasping and gurgling through her throat, she had a hand on her stomach with a denim shirt or something to keep her intestines in.”
Eilerd took off his shirt and asked his friends to follow suit so he could try to stop the bleeding and cover Botha’s bare body to keep her warm. Unsure if she could be moved because of her injuries, the group contacted emergency services.
A strike that night delayed the arrival of an ambulance by two hours.
Eilerd remembers holding Botha’s hand and communicating with her through hand signals: one squeeze meant yes and two meant no.
He said he had determined that she had been raped, and asked her about the make and colour of car the attackers used, whether she was alone and how many people had attacked her.
“The police were at the hospital and we could give them all this info,” said Eilerd, who stayed at Botha’s side in the ambulance.
He talked to detective Melvin Humpel, whose name became synonymous with the court case that followed. When Eilerd outlined the details he had gathered from Botha, Humpel “almost immediately knew who it was”.
Kruger and Du Toit were arrested the next day. One of the men was sleeping and the other was in bed with his wife, remembers Eilerd.
Humpel died after a heart attack in early 2020.
At the time of their arrest, Kruger and Du Toit were out on bail on charges relating to rape and sexual assault. But, said Eilerd, a case could not be opened because of insufficient evidence. This changed after the attack on Botha.
“Alison made a big difference, she came forward and identified her attackers. It motivated other victims to come forward.”
Although “life goes on”, said Eilerd, almost three decades later he and Botha are reminded of when Kruger and Du Toit were standing trial in 1995.
“It is difficult for both of us,” said Eilerd, who treasures his friendship with Botha. At the time of the attack, he was studying veterinary technology but soon after changed his career path to become a doctor. In 2006, he assisted with Botha’s delivery of her second child by caesarean section.
He believes Kruger and Du Toit cannot be rehabilitated. Their whereabouts on parole will not be known “every second” and that, says Eilerd, “is a problem”.
“Putting them back into society is not right, the judge said they had no remorse about what they did, they cannot go back into society.”
Women’s rights advocacy group the Tears Foundation said it was “outraged” by the news of their parole.
“This is not just about Alison. It’s about the women and children who do not have a voice,” said founder Mara Glennie. “These two men committed a heinous crime, and they should never have been eligible for parole.”
The Democratic Alliance said it was “appalled” by the parole decision. Bearing in mind that Botha was not Kruger and Du Toit’s first victim, the party believes they are “a danger to society” and their release from prison “has placed the safety of both Alison and every other woman in South Africa at risk”.
Eilerd said the government must take responsibility when it releases a criminal the person commits goes on to murder or rape. “The person that made that decision and signed off that parole form must be punished as well,” he said.
He believes current profile photographs of the two men must be released so that “every girl and woman out there should know how they look to be aware of who they are”.
In a written response, Justice Minister Ronald Lamola told parliament that from 2020 to January, nearly 34 000 prisoners who were out on parole have violated their parole conditions.