The Director of Public Prosecution’s decision on whether a charge of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm against an Overberg farmer will be dismissed, will be announced at the end of March.
This was announced last week when the accused, who owns a large farm in the Riviersonderend District, and stands accused of assaulting his former girlfriend and reportedly pulling large bushes of hair from her scalp during an altercation, appeared in the Hermanus Magistrates’ Court. The accused’s attorney, William Booth, made represen-tations to the court and Director of Public Prosecution’s office to request that the charge against his client be withdrawn.
But the woman’s father is adamant he will fight until his last breath to see justice served for his daughter. “I won’t let this go even if I have to spend my life’s savings,” he said. “I want for him to be on record for what he (allegedly) did so that if he does it again, he will pay.”
The father engaged the services of Eric Breyer, a Johannesburg-based attorney, to assist local attorney Adrian Louw as a watching brief. Breyer advised that, should the representation be viewed favourably, the victim and her family should use the services of advocate Gerrie Nel to pursue private prosecution.
The charges against the 66-year-old farmer, who has a house in Hermanus, stems from an incident in October 2023, when he allegedly beat the victim, slammed her head against the car’s dashboard and reportedly pulled her hair in a fit of rage after she reportedly admonished him about his driving.
The woman, who had reportedly been in a relationship with the accused “on and off for nearly 20 years”, allegedly suffered a sprained nose, swollen eyes and bruises to her faces, and was also reportedly left with bald patches at the back of her head where the accused allegedly pulled the hair from her scalp.
“When she called me after the attack to ask me to fetch her I didn’t realise just how bad it was until I saw her,” the victim’s father stated. After reporting the matter to the police he took his daughter to a private hospital, where a doctor examined her and noted all her injuries on the required J88 form.
“They even did blood tests to rule out deficiencies that may have caused hair loss. I took her to a specialist who wrote a statement indicating the hair was pulled out of my daughter’s scalp.”
The accused was released on bail of R1 000 after the victim, who asked not to be identified in the newspaper, testified she was not opposed to the accused being released on bail, on condition he did not contact her in any way.
The alleged assault, said the victim’s father, reminded him of a similar incident in December 2022, when the accused allegedly also assaulted his daughter while they were in the car. The woman, however, withdrew the charges relating to this alleged incident two months later. The outcome of Booth’s representation to the DPP is expected to be announced on 28 March.. The case against the 17-year-old minor accused of killing Deveney Nel will be heard in the Caledon Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 27 February. The case was postponed in his absence as he is currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation at Valkenberg Hospital.
