Woman tells of disfiguring acid attack
2011-09-09 07:44
Cape Town - A 23-year-old woman has told how she was attacked by a man who threw acid on her face, causing excruciating pain and horribly disfiguring her.
Susan (no last name was given) was waiting for a minibus taxi after work in Sea Point, Cape Town last week, when she noticed two suspicious-looking men watching her, reported the Cape Argus.
They got on the same taxi as she did and as they passed her to get off the taxi in the city centre, one of the men threw the acid in her face.
Susan, who is from Zimbabwe, said she didn’t know why she had been attacked but did not believe that xenophobia was the motive as the men didn’t know she was a foreigner.
The taxi driver took her and another passenger, who was injured in the attack, to hospital.
She will have to have four years of reconstructive surgery, costing an estimated R450 000. A Cape Town plastic surgeon has offered to help her, free of charge.
Ironically, Susan thought Cape Town would be safer than Johannesburg. She had only lived in the city for a few months.
A police spokesperson confirmed that one of the suspects had been arrested.
