Rumours fly over Anene Booysen's attacker

2013-03-04 10:17

Jonathan Davids, accused of gang-raping, murdering and mutilating 17-year-old Anene Booysen, appears in the Bredasdorp Magistrate's Court. (File, Sapa)

Cape Town - The community of Bredasdorp has been torn apart by the brutal gang rape and murder of Anene Booysen.

But rumours are rife in the Overberg town that police may have arrested the wrong men for the crime, reported the Weekend Argus.

Many of the coloured residents refuse to believe that one of their own could have committed such a vicious crime.

Before she died, Booysen, 17, named one of her attackers as “Zwai”.

Accused’s family convinced of innocence

Police arrested close family friend Jonathan Davids, whose nickname is Zwai and a friend, Johannes Kana.

But Davids’s family members are convinced that the wrong man has been arrested for the crime.

They say a black man from a local township, who is also called Zwai, is the real perpetrator.

Reporters tracked down two men named Zway in a township about 100m from Booysen’s home.
Both were builders and denied being involved in the murder.

One of the men said he was shocked to hear that he had been implicated in the murder. His girlfriend confirmed that she had been with him on the night of the murder.

The other man had only recently been released from hospital and was an elderly man who was still using a catheter.  

‘Why was my sister hurt so bad?’

The murdered teenager’s brother said he had a hard time coming to terms with the brutal nature of her death.

“I need to know why my sister was killed in this way. Why she was hurt so bad? I just don’t understand it,” said Ryno Booysen.

He said he had known Davids since childhood, and was having a hard time accepting he would hurt Anene.

“I know Davids as a very heavy drinker. He drinks himself into a stupor and when he’s in a drunken state he normally gets smacked around by everybody, but I do not know him as one to retaliate or use violence.”

- News24