Sarah Manho stared blankly into the hole dug for her daughter's body."If I had the chance to talk to Nita now I would tell her to stay at home and take care of her child and not go to the shebeen," she said.At the safe house where she has found refuge, the 42-year-old broke down, crying softly as she recounted a memory of Nita."I will always remember her face, the way she came up to the front door with her daughter, smiling."Manho buried her 22-year-old daughter on Saturday in Bredasdorp.Nita's mutilated body lies within metres of four other victims of a tide of savagery that has engulfed Bredasdorp in the past three years: Anene Booysen, 17, gang-raped and murdered in 2013; Kayde Williams, 5, raped and murdered in February last year ; Elda Jaftha, 15, found dead under the bed belonging to her 29-year-old boyfriend three months later; and Xolelwa Vuma, 30, stabbed to death last August.A cocktail of drugs and alcohol fuels the violence, say police and social workers, and it was in a shebeen that Nita spent her last night alive.She left her six-year-old daughter at home on Friday, April 1, and went partying in Zwelitsha with cousins and a friend.Her body was found the next day at the nearby P&B Lime Works, with injuries so severe that the state coroner would show only her face to Manho.Another mother was sobbing last week in the town of 15000 people.Diane Ward told The Times about the life of bullying her son Dalwigo had endured because of a mental disability.Dalwigo appeared in court last Monday charged with the rape and murder of Nita. Police said the 19-year-old's confession and the testimony of a witness were expected to deliver a swift verdict. He is back in court today.Ward said her son spent part of last year undergoing psychiatric treatment at Stikland Hospital, Cape Town, after he threw boiling water over her head. He was discharged in November and refused to continue his medication.Dalwigo was bullied from a young age because other boys knew he had a mental disorder. This led to him being easily manipulated."He admitted to me that he did it [killed Nita]. But I strongly believe that he is protecting someone," said Ward.A friend of Dalwigo's brother, Francois Michaels, saw Dalwigo the night before the murder.He had been fighting with shebeen customers and a security guard wanted to beat him up."I told him he must go home because he's a small guy and he was going to get hurt," said Michaels.The attack on Nita bore close resemblances to that in the Anene's case, said Lana O'Neill, a social worker heading up the Cape Agulhas Safe House for abused women.Drug and alcohol abuse were at the core of the community's problems, she said, but she also blamed an apathetic community who failed to act: "Why should they wait? Why can't they start something themselves? It could be their sister or their mother."This sentiment was echoed by police station commander Lieutenant-Colonel Maree Louw, who said: "Some of them are in a comfort zone as long as it's not happening to them."In an area like Bredasdorp police often had to play the role of social workers."It is part of our job to address the roots - and it starts at home," said Louw.Sihle Ngobese, spokesman for Western Cape social development MEC Albert Fritz, said the department opened a "fully functional" office in Bredasdorp a year ago and funded family support programmes."However, our efforts need the communities of Bredasdorp to take a strong stand against abuse and violence aimed at women and children. The state cannot replace the role of committed families," Ngobese said.O'Neill is not optimistic about Bredasdorp's future."There's another murder coming, believe me. People are not doing enough," she said, adding that she had withdrawn from the community policing forum because it was "a talk shop"."I refuse to sit in meetings while nothing is happening on the ground."..