'I am leaving this country'
2008-02-19 07:55
Pretoria - "As soon as I'm mobile again, I'm leaving this country," says Razelle Botha of Moreleta Park in Pretoria.
The star matric pupil was speaking on Monday shortly before she was discharged from Pretoria East Hospital.
She was shot five times a fortnight ago during an armed robbery at her home in Norval Street.
On Monday afternoon, Razelle was transferred to MuelMed-MediClinic, where she will receive intensive occupational therapy.
Meanwhile, her mother, Cobie Botha, sent a letter about the crime situation to President Thabo Mbeki.
According to the daily newspaper, The Times, she wrote: "Mr President, I am not moaning, sir, I am crying for help!
"How do I tell my child she will never be able to walk again when she pleads with me to tell her differently?"
Has feeling in her legs
Razelle said on Monday: "We have a fantastic country and the people have been very good to me, but I think I should go, for my own safety.
Razelle, who got eight distinctions in last year's exam, said about her upcoming therapy: "Right now, I just feel positive."
She said her friends, family and the nurses had been amazing.
"I can feel in my whole left leg and I can move the muscles in my right leg."
Razelle said that after her narrow escape she was even more determined to become a doctor.
She's planning to go to Canada to study medicine.
Her father Professor Willem Botha, who was with her in the house during the robbery, was shot in the groin.
He's recuperating at home at present.
Police, meanwhile, have found a firearm in the Moreletta Spruit, which they link to the robbery and shooting at the Bothas.
Captain Colette Weilbach said it had been sent to the police forensic laboratory to see if it could be linked to crimes in and around Pretoria, including Razelle's shooting.
Police also have seized a hat that a suspect had left behind at the Botha home. Weilbach said they were still awaiting tests on fingerprints lifted at the Bothas' home
Meanwhile, the Johannesburg school where 12-year-old Emily Williams was a pupil, have announced that they're planning a silent protest against crime on Thursday.
Emily was shot dead in Fairlands, Johannesburg, last week by robbers that her mother had stumbled on while she was collecting a friend at her house.
The march by Trinity House Preparatory School in Rand Park Ridge is also to show appreciation to the police.
Speaking at a memorial at the school on Monday, headmaster Dr Herbie Staples said: "What we must learn from Emily's death is that we should take a stand against crime and the lack of justice in our land.
School staging silent protest
"It's time for us to tell the government we're sick and tired of seeing how innocents become the victims of crime.
"It's not acceptable that children and the elderly, the most-vulnerable members of our society, are robbed, raped and murdered.?
The protest march leaves from the Eastwood Street gate of Trinity House at 10:00 on Thursday. In Beyers Naude Drive it will move up to Dale Lace Avenue.
It will be a silent march, in honour of Emily and other victims of crime.