Wounds refuse to heal in town where Anene died

Search For Justice Tomorrow, Johannes Kana will plead in the Anene Booysen rape and murder trial. But there is little hope among the people of Bredasdorp that all her killers will be brought to book. Carlos Amato investigates

'Whatever you do in the darkness, the crows will bring it out," says Annelize Dowry, who lives opposite Anene Booysen's family home in Kleinbegin, on the edge of Bredasdorp. She cannot accept that only one man - Johannes Kana - is in the dock for the 17-year-old's rape and murder. Anene's deathbed testimony was that five men gang-raped and disembowelled her.

The crows in Dowry's idiom are agents of mystical reckoning. Few people in Bredasdorp trust the mundane crows of the law to reveal the full story of Anene's last night. By many accounts, the Western Cape town's history is littered with unsolved crimes and wrongful convictions.

When charges were dropped against Jonathan "Zwai" Davids last week, after he had spent three months in custody, it deepened fears that justice would not be done for Anene.

The media and the public have chosen Anene's brutalisation, from among thousands of similar rapes and murders, as a turning point - a cathartic moment, in answer to India's mass rage after a Delhi gang rape last December, that might turn the tide of sexual violence in South Africa. But the apparently clumsy handling of Anene's case suggests the police and the National Prosecuting Authority are incapable of supporting that shift.

On the streets of Kleinbegin, the anger is not directed at "Zwai" Davids: many, including Anene's brother Ryno, believe he is innocent and argue that two other Bredasdorp men who share his nickname should have been properly interrogated at the outset. The investigation was hasty and desperate, they say. "Hulle het 'n vissie gevang en probeer hom spice [they caught a little fish and tried to spice it]," said one resident.

"And if Davids is innocent, then who says Kana is the guilty man?" asked pastor Sam van Staden at a fiery community meeting in Kleinbegin on Wednesday night, to applause from about 100 older residents. Several speakers complained bitterly about the police and demanded that the investigators be replaced. Mayor Richard Mitchell was in the audience and supported the allegation that the wrong men had been arrested: "Those two men's lives are now permanently damaged," he said.

But Kana has confessed to raping and assaulting Anene - although he claims he had no involvement in her murder and doesn't know who killed her. Tomorrow he will plead at the Bredasdorp Magistrate's Court.

Kana's mother, Lena Riekers, and his aunt Miena Sarels refused to accept he raped Anene, let alone killed her. "He is a sweet, pleasant boy," said Riekers this week, cradling her baby son, Rynowen. "He has had many girlfriends, and nothing like this ever happened before."

At the time of his arrest, Kana was living with his aunt Miena, because his parents live on a nearby farm, too far to commute to his job at the Bredasdorp fire station. Not many locals know Kana because he grew up in Grabouw. "Zwai" didn't know him, but Anene knew him through a mutual friend.

Kana was a nippy scrumhalf for the local Rangers Rugby Club, along with Anene's brother Ryno. A Blue Bulls flag flies from Tannie Miena's roof.

Shortly after the murder, Sarels handed police the clothes Kana wore that night. She said she saw only mud on the hems of his trousers, and no blood. She said Kana was calm and unconcerned on the day he was arrested and promised her he would be home soon.

His and Davids's lawyer, Pieter du Toit, claimed this week he had found a witness who corroborated Kana's account. "The witness says he saw Kana [back] inside David's Sports Bar after he had left with Anene. And he says that later on he saw Anene leaving with a group of other men in a dark-coloured car."

But he said the state had not called this witness to testify.

"I'm glad they withdrew their case against Davids, but I'm not happy about their not investigating any further," said Du Toit. He also questioned the police's appointment of a Hermanus-based detective, Warrant Officer Edmund Abels, in place of local Warrant Officer Doleen Olivier, who conducted the much-criticised initial investigation. "When they changed the investigating team, I thought they would bring in detectives from Cape Town. I was very surprised it was somebody from Hermanus."

Bredasdorp station commander Colonel Maree Louw denied the case was drawing to a close: "The investigation of this case will never stop until whoever is involved is behind bars."

Both Abels and NPA spokesman Eric Ntabazalila refused to comment on the likelihood of further arrests.

At his uncle's house in Duine Street on Wednesday, Davids seemed lost in despair. He sat down in the living room and removed his cap, emblazoned with a dagga-leaf symbol. "People look at me skeef [askance]," he said. "Even when I went to Cape Town, people recognised me and looked at me. I don't sleep much. I feel like a time bomb that might explode."

As a teenager, Davids was badly injured in a road accident that broke his hip, a leg and an arm. Since leaving school he has done a bit of work as a backyard mechanic. A few weeks before his arrest he landed a job as a flower packer at a nursery.

His prospects now are grimmer than most of Bredasdorp's 6000-odd unemployed. Many who know him may believe in his innocence, but many strangers don't.

Is he tormented by the death of Anene, who was "like a sister" to him? "I don't know. I feel nothing," said Davids, his eyes downcast. "If I was able to feel anything, I would feel heartsore about Anene. But I feel nothing, so I miss nothing. I feel empty."

Has he visited Anene's foster mother, Corlia Olivier, or tried to contact her? "No," he says. "She knew me, but she still believed I could have done it, so I don't think I can speak to her."

Olivier has left town - she apparently lives in Greyton, although she returns for court hearings. She is an unpopular figure in Kleinbegin, with many accusing her of neglecting her foster daughter. Some allege she was drinking at the pub on the night of Anene's death.

While Davids was being held at Buffeljagsrivier Prison near Swellendam, he heard that Anene's father, Klasie Speelman, was being held in a nearby cell for a minor offence. Speelman was unaware of her death and Davids gave him the news via inmates in the cells between them.

Like many local youngsters, Davids doesn't know his own father, who lives in Kimberley. When he was 11 his mother, Jane, was murdered - beaten to death by her boyfriend. Since then her brother has raised Davids with apparent affection and care.

His uncle Nico September, an amateur rugby coach, teased his mumbling nephew: "Jonathan is the most boring guy," he said. "If you push him, he will just sit there and do nothing. But now he doesn't even talk. He just sits in a daze when you're with him. He doesn't trust people anymore. I want him to see a psychologist but there isn't one available at the clinic till next month," he said.

On the night Anene died, according to Davids, she saw him at the pub. He said she gave him a playful slap on the back of his head and told him, "I'm here too." He nodded to her and resumed his project: drinking. That was the last time he saw her, he says. "I was drunk and there were lots of people there, so I didn't keep track of her."

Davids said he left soon afterwards to drink with a friend at a nearby house.

Kallie Davids refused to speak about the case this week, and his liquor licence is being reviewed for failing to bar minors from his pub. Anene was one of the town's thousands of school drop-outs - she worked as a cleaner on the construction site behind the pub.

But Kallie is not the sole agent of alcohol abuse in Bredasdorp; according to neighbourhood watch member Daniel Engel, there are about 40 shebeens in town. Their competitive advantage is to allow customers to drink on credit.

It's hard to dispute that drinking propels violence and that violence in turn propels drinking. Poverty can cause inchoate anger, which can translate into aggression.

But Bredasdorp is not a depressed town by South African rural standards: the unemployment rate of about 20% is well below the national average and the municipality has made good progress on the provision of low-income housing. There is a real sense of a cohesive community and plenty of local programmes have been set up to motivate and support the youth.

But it's far easier to build decent houses or award bursaries than it is to heal invisible wounds. Broken families are the norm here and the young and old alike are engraved with patterns of abuse. "There is a normalisation of violence here and it's transferred between generations," said Mike Abrams of the Overberg Development Association. "We need to find out how we're socialising young men into a violent identity."

The construction site on which Anene was found is now a street of silent matchbox houses, freshly painted in violet and grey. They are ready for occupation but there are no takers yet, barring a haggard old man at the far end of the street who beats his dogs.

Some community elders want the two houses that framed Anene's agony to become a museum in her memory. But the plan is vague. They know remembrance is a poor substitute for justice.